


Locard's Exchange Principle

by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl



Series: Legacy of the Tower [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Original Work, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dogs, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:29:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26170447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxEtoile/pseuds/NyxEtoile, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlivesAwl/pseuds/OlivesAwl
Summary: Locard's Exchange Principle n, Forensic Science theory: Whenever two human beings come into contact, something from one is exchanged to the other. Named for Edmond Locard, known for advancing the science of fingerprints.Mallory shook her head, taking the cup of coffee she offered. "He's a few years older than me. Quiet. Very sweet. His mother was one of the old Avengers, I think?”“Wanda Taschengregger was the Scarlet Witch. You know, the one who could levitate and blow things up with her hands," Nova said. “But she didn’t do it very long. Apparently she’s got a ton of kids, I think they’re orthodox.”"Well one of them is my vet and I almost cried in front of him.”
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Female Character, Wanda Maximoff/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Legacy of the Tower [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/965454
Comments: 166
Kudos: 220





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Today's unfinished fic is our first Taschengregger! Alexei is from the oldest set of twins, a veterinarian, and is about to meet his match with an injured bomb sniffing dog and the shy forensic scientist who inherited him.

"How's my favoritest forensic researcher doing this fine day?"

Mallory glanced over the top edge of her glasses at the lawyer leaning into her office doorway. Years ago, she'd looked into laser surgery for her eyesight and was informed she was a bad candidate given the severity of her astigmatism. If she was honest, she'd been rather glad. A glare over glasses frames was a rare and beautiful thing. "What do you need, McDonald?"

Angus McDonald - whose parents, she assumed, wanted to make sure everyone knew their son was Scottish - stepped into her office. "I need you to look at a bite mark case."

She groaned and tipped her head back. Bite mark cases were a bit of an in-joke in the forensics department at the Innocence Project. While many of their cases could be traced back to faulty evidentiary science, bite marks had a particular infamy. For a while in the late 20th and early 21st century they'd been treated as accurate as finger prints. Years of lobbying from the IP and other defendant's rights groups had slowly changed that impression, but every so often a case still popped up.

"Let me see," Mal said, holding her hand out.

McDonald passed her the tablet he'd been carrying. "I need to know who to go to who could figure out what else could have made those marks.

She turned the tablet to face her and flipped through the pictures he'd pulled up. They showed several half moon patterns of wounds on a body. If one tilted their head they looked like teeth marks.

"Was the victim found in water?" she asked. "Creek or pond, something like that? Probably in the south?"

McDonald stared at her a moment. "How?"

"They're crawdad bites," she told him, handing him the tablet and turning to her computer. "There was another case IP cleared. Thirty-odd years ago. I'll send you the file. They had a forensic animal odontologist do some experiments with pigs. Don't know if you'll have to repeat the experiment or if the precedent is enough."

"Thats my job, don't worry about it." He was grinning. "Thanks. This was far easier than I'd expected it to be."

Mal waved a hand, attaching the file and sending it to his email. "It's what I do." He gave her a little salute and headed out.

Most people thought of their brain as a building or filing cabinets. Mallory thought of her like one of those old telephone operator boards. Thousands of little holes and hundreds of cables. All she had to do was find the right hole to plug into and she could get all the information she needed. Eidetic, the counselors in grammar school had called it. Her father had been a bit flummoxed, and her brother had demanded to know why his brain wasn't cool. 

It had been useful for school, and made her very good at her job, but there were definitely moments in her life she wished she could forget. This afternoon was probably going to be one of them.

A text message came in a little after three and she gathered up her jacket and purse and went down to her supervisor's office. "I'm leaving now, the plane is half an hour out."

Katrina look up from the file she was reading and gave her a little smile. "Are you sure you're okay going alone?"

"I'm fine," Mallory assured her. "I don't like crowds."

"And you'll be out till next Monday."

"That's the current plan." Secretly, she hoped she could come back earlier, but there were enough unknown variables she'd agreed to the full week. "I'll call you if anything changes."

Katrina nodded. "Take care, Mal."

She caught a car service to the airport in New Jersey where her brother would be landing. She had been given permission to go out onto the tarmac to meet him.

A line of Marines was waiting there, along with a few other civilians she assumed were family members.

"Ms. Kennedy?"

She turned to the gentleman in a dark suit who'd spoken. "Yes?"

"I'm Tom James, from Bubbling Well?"

"Ah, yes." As she shook his hand, she spotted the hearse behind him. "Thank you for coming out so far."

He smiled kindly. "Of course. We go where we're needed."

Mallory suspected that even without her memory, the next half hour would have been burned into her brain for the rest of her life. The plane landed about ten minutes after she got there. People were crying long before the engines wound down and the back opened. The line of Marines marched up the ramp and began to bring the coffins down.

People were allowed to go see their loved one's flag draped box before it was loaded into its respective hearse. Some of the crying turned to wailing. One of the women, whom she assumed was a mother, actually collapsed.

There were two other women Mal's age, which she assumed were widows, who didn't sob or wail, just touched the box and nodded to the soldiers to take it on.

When it was her turn she focused as hard as she could on not limping when she walked up to them. It was very hard to believe the flag covered shape held the earthly remains of her brother. His thatch of unruly brown hair and the scar over his left eye and his wide grin. All in that box being carried towards her.

Tears choked her throat and she put her hands on the lid, breathing hard. This was so much worse than she'd thought it would be. Worse than the funeral would be, two days from now. Here, right now, it hit home that her brother was dead. Her twin was gone, and she was alone in the world.

She dropped her hands and nodded to the men, digging in her pocket for Kleenex. they walked past, stone faced, to put him in the back of Tom James' hearse. Malcolm could have been buried at Arlington, but his will had specified he wanted to be in the New Jersey cemetery near their parents. So he would stay at the mortuary overnight until the funeral on Friday.

"Mallory Kennedy?"

She was really to up for company right now, but she nodded and turned to face the uniformed man beside her. Despite her brother spending over a decade in the Marines, she still couldn't recognize rank just from uniform. She assumed, from the man's age and posture, that he was an officer. "Yes, sir?"

"I'm Major Fischer, I spoke to you on the phone."

"Yes," she said, taking his hand. "Nice to meet you, Major."

"I'm very sorry about your brother."

She had a lifetime ahead of her to hear that and she was already so sick of it. But she managed her polite smile and nodded. "Thank you. I assume you wanted to talk to me about my other passenger?"

He smiled a little and nodded, just a bare move of his head. "Again, I want to reiterate, if you're not up for it, we have other options."

Mallory felt a rare streak of stubbornness tighten her jaw. "This is what Mal wanted, I'm prepared to step up."

The major nodded, the lifted a hand and gestured to someone near the plane. A moment later a younger Marine came forward, leading a large Belgian Malinois. He had the suggestion of a classic black and tan shepherd pattern, but the black had taken over so there were only hint of tan on his chest and haunches. His back end was strapped into a complicated looking wheelchair, and he was valiantly trying to push a little with his back legs.

"Meet Goliath," Major Fischer said.

Mallory had never owned a dog, but she liked them. And her brother had talked about Goliath so much it felt like she already knew him. She crouched down and offered her hand, palm out, for him to sniff. "Hi Goliath," she said quietly. "I'm Mal."

He sniffed her thoroughly, so thoroughly she wondered if she smelled similar enough to her brother he was confused. He finished the sniffing with a little lick, which surprised her.

"This is his medical records," Major Fischer said, handing her a thick manilla envelope once she straightened. "As well as a list of his commands and the contact information for some local K-9 trainers who can help you if you need it. He's on the mend, but his injuries were extensive so you should get a relationship established with a vet soon."

She nodded, taking the lead from the younger Marine. "I already did research and have an appointment tomorrow with the best rated vet in the area." She also had a full contingent of dog stuff set up in her house, including a couple large beds, high quality food and treats, toys and dishes. She was quite determined Goliath would have a luxurious retirement.

"It was nice meeting you," the major said. "I'll see you at the funeral on Friday."

Mallory nodded and gave a gentle tug on Goliath's lead. He immediately moved to her side. Together they walked slowly back to the car waiting for her.

*

_It tastes different._

Alexei Taschengregger didn’t even look up at his cat, who was on top of the refridgerator. “It’s the exact same can as last time.”

Yoda made a sniffing noise. _It’s different, and I don’t like it._

“I’m late for work,” Alexei replied, taking Yoda’s dish and putting it on the counter. “You know where your dry kibble is.”

_I’m being starved! I’m reporting you to Cat Services._

“There is no such thing,” Alexei called back, heading for the door. There was silence, and when he looked back, Yoda was eating his unacceptable tuna. Alexei rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him.

His walk wasn’t exactly far, as he lived on the top floor of the building that contained his veterinary clinic. The receptionist was in, and she waved. His phone rang as he reached his office. He had an appointment in 15 minutes, but he knew who it was and they weren’t a yacker. “Hi, George,” he answered with. “What’s up?”

“Apparently, I am not fit to own a dog.”

Alexei frowned at sat in his chair. “What?”

“The kids want a dog. Amelia and I decided to try and do the rescue thing and keep getting rejected. Different reasons each time. I have children under six in the house. I have someone over 75 in the house. I have too many children. I have too many stairs. I live on the beach. I don’t have enough yard-”

Last Alexei checked, George lived in a literal mansion. “Don’t you have like ten thousand square feet in the house?”

“Fourteen. But not enough is grass. The yard I do have doesn’t have a tall enough fence, because they don’t count the forcefield. I don’t have a vet who will give me references-”

“Yes you do.”

“Not in California. Most of them want permission to come inspect my house and then to be able to drop in any time and re-inspect at their leisure. One insisted I promise never to leave the dog for more than for hours and when I told them we would hire full time help to care for said dog, and they called me elitist and hung up.”

Alexei was laughing now. “Well, you are pretty elitist.”

"Well, how the hell do non elitist people get dogs? Are only independently wealthy hermits with 12 acres and no kids supposed to own them?"

“That’s California for you.”

“Lex.”

“A lot of those things are excuses. They didn’t like you just because of what they think you’re like and leapt on the first excuse. The kid thing can be legit, you do need the right kind of dog. Rich people get puppies from breeders.”

“Amelia said no puppies.”

Alexei sighed. “I will find you a dog here in New York, and then you can come get it.”

"Thank you," George said. "I trust your judgement.”

“In this area, you should.”

"I am a man who respects a subject matter expert." He sighed. "But if you take too long to find one I'm going to send you pictures of sad little children.”

“I’m the oldest of eight, George. I’m immune to sad children.”

"Damn you, I'll find your kryptonite yet.”

“If you ever do, Esther will pay good money for that info.”

"Duly noted."

His phone beeped, indicating his receptionist was pinging him. "I have a client, George, I have to go."

"Right, right. Have a good one.”

He went out into the hall and nearly ran into Julie, one of his vet techs. “Hey, here’s the chart. They’re new.” She handed it to him and bustled off. Belgian Malinois recovering from a broken leg. Alexei was happy to see if flagged as being from his working dogs program—he treated injured service dogs and such for free—because that was not the breed of dog suited for a family in search of a simpleton lap dog. Someone in intake must have really like this dog, though, as they’d festooned his chart with a little gold star sticker.

Inside the exam room, he found said Malinois, a big dark furred boy with his back end propped up in a wheelchair to keep weight off his broken leg. With him was a curvy woman with long dark hair and half frame glasses. She did not look like any sort of military or law enforcement dog handler he'd ever seen. He would have pegged her as "not a pet person" at all, had she not been sitting on the floor with the dog, letting it lounge over her lap, probably covering her crisply ironed work pants in fur. She was carefully scratching under one of the straps of the wheelchair, much to the dog's delight.

"Ms. Kennedy?" he asked, closing the door behind him.

She looked up and offered him a polite smile. "Yes. Dr. Taschengregger?”

He smiled. “My mother’s true legacy is that so many people can pronounce our name correctly. But feel free to call me Dr. T, most people do.” He crouched down. “You must be Goliath. How’s the leg?”

Ms. Kennedy started to answer, of course, talking about the paperwork she'd been giving and how he was putting weight on it already. In Alexei's head, he could hear Goliath's answer. _Ready for duty. Done with this stupid contraption._

“I’m just going to have feel,” he said, reaching his hands slowly to give Goliath a chance to express disapproval. All he got was a resigned-sounding sigh. _Tell me what happened._

 _Bad guys had an explosive. Had blown up a medical aid station. You don't blow up doctors,_ Goliath told him firmly. _We tracked him, Sarg and I. I found where he was bunkered down. We were waiting for bomb techs to do a sweep. Bad guy decided to blow himself up. Sarg didn't make it. Bomb techs arrived a few minutes later and took me to base._ He looked up at Ms. Kennedy. _This is Sarg's sister. She's mine now._

The sticker. That kind of gold star. He sent sympathy. “Don’t worry,” he said out loud. “We’ll take good care of you.”

"He keeps trying to put weight down and run," Ms. Kennedy was saying. "I know he's used to being active, but I want to make sure he's not going to reinjure himself.”

“I’d like a few tests, but the best thing for him is likely going to be physical therapy.”

"Will that be in office or at home? Or a combination of both."

 _Tell her I want more gushy food,_ Goliath told him. _She has the good stuff._

 _Sorry, bud. I don’t translate until I know people better. Else they think I’m nuts._ Then he told Ms. Kennedy, “Office visits and exercises at home. We have equipment here.”

She nodded and looked at Goliath, petting his head. "Hear that, big guy? You get to go to the gym.”

 _It’ll be fun, I promise,_ he told Goliath.

 _I'm not afraid of hard work,_ he replied with a tail thump.

"How often will he need to come in?" Ms. Kennedy asked. "I'll need to make arrangements to work from home.”

“We like to start with twice a week, and can do nights or weekends as well.”

She tilted her head, apparently considering that. "Evenings would work best. I've already made arrangements to bring him to work with me while we're adjusting. I can be here with him by 6.”

“Sounds good. They can pencil you in out front. First let's run some tests, shall we?”

She nodded and looked down at the dog. "Goliath, up." She gestured at the same time.

Goliath got to his feet, giving Alexei a sidelong glance. _She doesn't really know the commands. But she tries._

 _We could make her a list,_ he replied, taking him to the exam table.

 _I don't want her to feel bad. She's doing her best. And she's sad._ He stood patiently while Alexei poked at his leg and took it through a range of motions, only yipping once when he palpitated the wound site.

Ms. Kennedy had come over to stand opposite him. "I've never had a dog before," she commented, petting Goliath's head. "Any kind of pet, actually.”

That made Alexei smile. “Heck of a dog to start with.”

"He's very well trained. I'm reading a lot," she told him. "Advice is appreciated.”

“Well trained dogs still like treats and positive reinforcement. On occasions of thunderstorms and fireworks he may freak out, even more so than your average dog. I can give you some medication if you need.” He looked down at Goliath. “And he’s a war hero. He deserves some canned food.” _Best I can do, buddy._

_I appreciate your efforts. If she asks about sleeping arrangements-_

"Is it all right if he sleeps on the bed with me?" she asked.

“If he wants to. You’ll probably have to help him up.”

She looked vaguely guilty. "I did. Last night. He looked so sad and I have a king. . . But the pages I was reading said it's important for him to have his own bed and safe space I I just. . . There's a lot of contradictory information and no one has any proper scientific studies.”

 _Did Sarge let you sleep in his bed?_ he asked the dog.

 _We didn't have beds,_ Goliath replied with big eyes. _We slept in the dirt. No pillows. Sometimes no blanket._ The "uphill, both ways" was strongly implied.

“It’s a lot like parenting,” Alexei said. “There are many experts, little data, and nobody knows what they are doing. Some dogs need and like crates. Some beds. Some want to be next to their people. They’re pack animals.” He shrugged, leaning over to make notes on the chart. “I have a cat, he sleeps where he wants. With the exception that I don’t like being clunked in the head with his hoverchair.”

"I just figured he missed my brother and maybe I smelled-" She stopped and tilted her head. "Your cat has a hoverchair?”

He grinned. “George Stark made it for me. I have an interesting family.”

She returned the smile, probably the first honest one he'd seen from her so far. "Clearly."

“He was hit by a car and lost both back legs. We had a regular cat wheelchair for him and Stark Industries makes the people hover chair in pretty small sizes for children, so when the story of Yoda made it’s way through the family, suddenly there was a cat one.” His mother had picked up his thoughts, mentioned it to his father who mentioned it to Amanda Newbury who was the one who called George and ordered him to design a veterinary hoverchair. Aunt Amanda and Uncle Bucky had an immense fondness for disabled pets.

"Does Yoda appreciate his hover chair?”

“Considering how often he climbs things, probably.”

"That's good. One of my college roommates had a cat that definitely thought she was queen of the house.”

“In any case, you can let him sleep wherever you feel comfortable with him sleeping. But they do need a place that is theirs to sleep, so don’t be fickle about it. It’s either the other half of the bed, or it’s a bed of his own.”

She nodded and idly pet Goliath's head. "Okay. We'll negotiate, I guess.”

“You’re gonna do fine,” Alexei said quietly. “I promise.”

For a moment, she looked like she might cry. Then she swallowed hard and nodded. "Thanks."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You get to meet some more Taschengregger siblings in this one!

Malcom's funeral was on Friday. It was well attended, mostly Marines and a smattering of their old high school and college friends, some old friends of their parents and her coworkers. The mortuary took care of everything, including the assortment of refreshments and the cars to the funeral. When it was done, Mallory was exhausted and went home, despite a variety of invites to go out and hang. Everyone seemed to respect she was overwhelmed and let her bow out graciously. She went right home and collapsed into bed with Goliath, who was becoming a remarkably comforting bed mate, even if he did snore a little.

Saturday morning her best friend, Nova, appeared at the door with baked goods. She'd been at the funeral the day before and Mallory was rather impressed she'd waited eighteen whole hours before checking in.

"How are you holding up, Mal?" she asked as she arranged donuts and pastries on a decorative plate. "All things considered?"

"As well as expected, I suppose." She leaned over her island counter and selected a lemon filled. "Did I tell you I almost broke down at the vet's office the other day?"

Nova made a sympathetic noise, filling in the hole Mal had left on the plate. "Any particular reason?"

Mallory shrugged. "He told me I was going to do fine. Unexpected kindness is oddly hard."

"I can see that. You think you're having a normal conversation and all of a sudden. . ." She was apparently content with her pastry display, because she left it be to go pour coffee. "How did he handle it? I'm picturing a weathered old white dude uncomfortable with tears and womenfolk in general."

"Did you grow up watching a lot of Animal Planet vet shows or something?" Mal asked with a laugh.

"Well, you know, in the old country, we had to learn of American customs through the television."

"Pretty sure your mansion in Mumbai had HBO."

"Mama caught me watching Game of Thrones once as a kid. No TV for a month. It was hell."

Mallory shook her head, taking the cup of coffee she offered. "He's white, but not old. Maybe a few years older than me. Quiet. Very sweet. His mother was one of the old Avengers, I think? He said George Stark made his cat a hover chair.”

Nova pulled out her phone. “Google will tell me. The original Avengers. There were three women, weren’t there?” She paused in her typing. “Duh, what was his last name?” 

"Taschengregger," she replied. "He said his mother true legacy was that everyone knew how to pronounce his last name. I felt awkward saying I didn't really know who she was.”

“That’s too bad, Roger Barnes is _super_ hot.” She turned her phone around to show Mallory a photo. The guy admittedly could have been a model. “But he’s a cardiac surgeon, those guys are all assholes. And he’s married.”

"He's very attractive," Mal agreed so she'd turn her phone back around. "You could bury a body in that chin cleft.”

“Wanda Taschengregger was the Scarlet Witch. You know, the one who could levitate and blow things up with her hands. She lived in exile for a while because they thought she was dangerous.”

"The Accords, yes. It's heavily studied in some criminal justice classes."

Nova arched a brow. "Did you ever study it?"

"It had no forensic element to it, so no. Hence why I don't recognize the name.”

“Its funny how people usually know the men from that era and not the women.”

"Sexism," Mallory said. "And I think the men were flashier. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were household names before the Chitari invasion.”

“I feel like telekinesis is pretty flashy,” Nova said. “But she didn’t do it very long. Apparently she’s got a ton of kids, I think they’re orthodox.”

"Well one of them is my vet and I almost cried in front of him.”

“Wikipedia has a whole family tree,” she said, not looking up from the screen. “God, it must suck to have famous parents. All your business is public information. I mean, the Stark kids will all get a couple billion bucks for their trouble, and one of them just married European royalty-” Nova lowered her phone and looked up. “Did you see pictures of that wedding? My mother was impressed, and my sister’s wedding had 950 people, 4 elephants and a helicopter. Her dress looked like someone resurrected Charles Worth.”

Mallory had no idea who that was, but context indicated he was an impressive designer. "It was all the interns could talk about when it happened. I saw the pictures, I thought they looked very happy.”

“I’m just saying, those kids get compensation. But the rest of them, would you want to be listed on Wikipedia?”

"Well, you know how much I love to be the center of attention," she said dryly, making Nova snort. "The vet seemed pretty well adjusted," she offered.

“He does not appear to be a recluse,” she replied. “He had a New York Times profile. I assume this is him.” She turned the phone again to show Mallory.

Sure enough, there was her vet, with his curly dark hair and kind smile. "That's him," she confirmed. She leaned closer to read his name. "Alexei. He was just A. in the online listing.” The profile was a blurb attached to an article about a service dog program run by the Stark Foundation. Apparently his clinic provided their veterinary care. He’d also gone to Honduras after the earthquake a few years back to care for the search & rescue dogs, and regularly took and rehabilitated badly injured animals from the city shelters.

The receptionist had breezily told her that Goliath’s treatment would be free because he treated injured working dogs for free. She wondered how many clients he had who did pay, and how he kept the lights on.

"I wonder if I should offer to pay something," she said once she handed the phone back to Nova and pointed out the service dog program. "Since he's not active."

"Where is the cuddliest war hero, anyway?"

"In the back." Mal had originally taken the ground floor condo because she enjoyed gardening and the postage stamp yard had been preferable to pots on a balcony. Now, she was very grateful Goliath had a yard to go potty in and she wasn't trying to haul 80 pounds of dog and wheelchair up and down a flight of stairs regularly.

She went to the back door and opened it and Goliath trotted in, panting happily. He saw Nova and paused, but Mal patted his head. "That's Nova, you remember her. You met her a couple days ago."

"I bring bribes," Nova said brightly, digging in the bag from the bakery. "Peanut butter and yum or mini cheese burger?"

Goliath zeroed in on the cheeseburger looking one and Nova handed it over. "I will, in fact, buy your dog's love."

"He's a good judge of character, he'd love you anyway.”

“He seems in good spirits.”

"He is. Dr. T said he had a good prognosis. Just needs some PT and maybe some anti inflamatories and he should be right as rain.”

“And then you can take up that jogging habit you’ve always wanted.”

Mallory snorted a laugh, rubbing Goliath's head affectionately. "I suppose it's that or moving to a farm with acres of sheep for him to herd.”

“This is New York City, you can find anything. I’m sure someone somewhere has sheep.”

"Actually, I may look into some agility training, once he's fully healed." Mallory liked researching things and a new dog had meant lots of topics to research. "There's a couple indoor gyms with all the equipment and trainers to help.”

“You could be one of those weird people who goes to dog shows.”

"My dream is to collect as many kinds of weird one person can possibly be.”

Goliath started his physical therapy, which Mallory was encouraged to participate in so she could learn things she could do at home. She’s sort of assumed there would be a tech, but Dr. T did them himself. He was not overly chatty, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. He was just one of those people who seemed to exude calm in every direction and was therefore just nice to be around. Goliath clearly adored him, and was astoundingly cooperative.

"Do you think he'd ready to go without the wheel chair?" she asked after a couple weeks of sessions. "It would be a lot easier to fit him in my office without it.”

There was a long pause during which he made more than one face—something that happened often, but she assumed he just like to work his thoughts out in his head. “I’d like to try some modified weight bearing in water—we have a small pool here. If that’s good than sure.”

She rubbed Goliath's head. "Wanna go for a swim big guy?”

“I feel confident he’ll be fine,” Dr. T said.

They headed to the back of the building where the pool was. Goliath seemed more than happy to get in the water, all but dancing as Dr. T took the wheelchair off and eased him in.

It did not escape her notice that he lifted an 80lb dog like he weighed nothing.

The pool was narrow and shallow enough Goliath wasn't in any danger of drowning. He trotted happily along the length of the pool, and Dr. T kept up with him, watching his legs carefully.

"What's the prognosis?" she asked as they made their way back.

“As long as he takes it easy,” he said, directing that rather pointedly to the dog. “I think we can give it a try, for a little bit each day.”

Goliath's tail wagged enough to send splashes out of the water and Mallory laughed. "I swear he speaks English.”

“They understand far more than you think.”

He helped Goliath out of the pool and Mallory bent and dried him off with the proffered towel. "We can hit the pet bakery to celebrate your new conditional freedom."

“I’ll see you guys next week?”

She nodded, smiling at him. "Same time.”

He pointed at Goliath. “Don’t overdo it. I’ll know.”

He woofed in return, tail wagging.

Dr. T was definitely a little odd, but one couldn't argue with the results. Watching Goliath heal up and become the dog her brother had often described soothed some of the grief Mallory still carried. This, at least, was something she could fix.

*

Alexei had himself a dilemma. 

His mother was a telepath, and the depth of her power was a highly classified secret few outside their extended family knew about. He suspected there were parts that his mother had shared only with Dad, Uncle Pietro and Aunt Lani, based on the questions she’d occasionally asked him growing, once they’re realized he could converse telepathically with the cats.

It had turned out to be mostly only the cats, though, and the other pets that had lived in the compound in Wakanda where he’d spent his early years. It had never gotten much stronger than that, even after they moved back to the US. He could hear animals, his mother, and a couple of his siblings—but not all of them. Mom’s powers seemed to have split among the children, half of them mental, half of them physical. They were all weird. Alexei could talk to animals. Dimitri could feel and influence the emotions of others. Lior could tell who was lying and who was telling the truth. Judith, the only singelton, could sort of see the future.

They often had the same kind of dilemmas.

Alexei and Judith did Sunday brunch once a week. Sometimes she’d come into the city where he lived, sometimes he’d go out to Connecticut. Sometimes other siblings would join, sometimes they wouldn’t. This particular Sunday he specifically invited Dimitri and Lior and said he’d cook because he wanted the privacy.

“This is feeling even more ominous in person than it did in the text,” Dimitri commented from where he’d sat on the breakfast bar. The three of them were lined up there, because Alexei didn’t actually have a table. Mom nagged him about that, but it wasn’t like he hosted dinner parties.

He tested the heat of his frying pan. “There is nothing ominous.”

“That’s not a lie,” Lior said. “But you’re making matzah brei. Grandma food is isn’t neutral.” They turned and looked at Judith. “Is something up with him?”

She tilted her head, looking at him thoughtfully. "He should beware a calico cat with an ACL injury this week. Other than that I got nothing.”

Alexei broke up the pieces of matzah to soak them in the egg mixtures. “What do I need to be aware of with the cat?”

_Calicos are witches,_ Yoda told him from his perch on the top of the fridge, which Alexei ignored.

"She's going to bite you on the hand between your thumb and forefinger. It'll get infected and take a couple months to heal. But she does legitimately have a torn ACL and feels bad about it.”

He tilted his head. “I’ll see if I can talk her into tolerating a scan without actually touching it."

She gave him a thumbs up and sipped her tea. "So what is all this about?”

Alexei began putting the eggs in the skillet. “I have a patient that was a military bomb dog. His handler died, he survived, and now he’s coming for PT with his late handler’s sister. And the dog talks to me about him. I started writing them down. I want to share them with the sister as she’s clearing grieving, but the hell if I know how.”

Lior propped their chin on a fist. "No one in this family ever has normal problems."

"What is the sister like?" Judith asked. "Certain personalities respond to weirdness better than others."

“I recall her being very entertained by Yoda’s chair,” he replied. “Seems like someone who enjoys novelty. She does something with forensics and those types see a lot of weird. Her memory is so precise it puts Ada to shame. And I think she’s at a better place in her grief—I wouldn’t have dared tell her any of this in the beginning. She doesn’t feel fragile as much.”

The silence behind him was so total, he turned. All three were looking at him. “You like her,” Dimitri said.

Alexei almost dropped the spatula. “I don’t—that’s not—” He turned back to plate the matzah brei, flustered. “It’s not like that.”

“Bullshit,” Lior said, in that sing-song-y ‘you’re lying’ voice that drove the other seven of them nuts.

"So this disclosure," Judith said slowly. "Not entirely altruistic healing her grief motivated?”

“Telling her about her brother has absolutely nothing to do with whatever Dimitri is picking up from my libido.” He filled the second plate.

"But, like, making a move on her might be a little easier if she knew your deep dark secret?

“I’m not making a move on a patient’s owner.”

They gave him three, matching skeptical faces, but mercifully, Judith, at least, seemed willing to drop it for the moment.

"Scientist types can go either way," she said, accepting the plate he offered. "But if her memory is as you say, she could have some sort of minor power that makes her more open to hearing weird stuff."

"You should probably get the dog to help you," Lior pointed out. "You're probably going to need to do one of those 'tell me something only the dog would know' cliche things.”

“Forensics,” Dimitri said. “She in law enforcement.”

“No, the opposite,” Alexei replied, handing Dimitri his plate.

“So crime?” was his response.

“She works for that organization that gets wrongful convictions overturned.”

"The Innocence Project?" Lior said, suddenly urgent.

“I believe that’s it, yes,” Alexei said, putting a plate down for them and then going to get his own with the last of the dish.

"Okay, you definitely need to out yourself because I need to talk to her.”

“Why?” he asked, confused at their intensity.

"I have a list of people I've seen in court who are definitely innocent. Some people I've translated for, others I've just been in the courtroom while they talked. I would love someone at the Innocence Project to take a look at it and see if they can help, but I can't explain how I know without sounding like a lunatic.” Lior was an ASL interpreter, and did work in the court system.

Alexei leaned against the counter to eat a moment, then he looked at Judith. “How did it go when you explained it all to Ben?” Judith had a roommate who she insisted was just a friend, a fact Lior confirmed as true, but Dimitri insisted there was something going on.

"Well, he saw me have a violent vision in the middle of Grand Central, I told him if he wasn't late for his train someone was going to die, and he told me I looked like the Scarlet Witch.”

“You do kind of look like Mom,” Dimitri said.

"I'm aware," she said dryly. "In that particular instance, it gave me some credibility in convincing him.”

“Which is why I told you to involve the dog,” Lior said. “Just don’t be creepy about it.”

“Thanks.”

They paused to munch their matzah brei."In fact, I would tell the dog you plan to tell her first, so he can give any advice he might have. He'll know her pretty well by now.”

“That. . . is actually good advice. Thank you.”

"I'm very smart," they told him solemnly.

"It helps you've known her a long time," Dimitri said. "She's seen you be a reliable, talented vet. So this isn't her first impression."

“You think I should talk to Mom before I do it?”

"She'll probably tell you it's up to you while secretly running a background check on the girl," Judith told him.

“Well, I’m not moving her into my house or anything.”

"Yeah, but if she gets any sort of whiff that her baby boy likes a girl she will absolutely make it a mission to know that girls social security number.”

Alexei sighed. “Yeah.” Sometimes their mother went full stereotype, and he was her firstborn son and all. She fussed.

"Just tell her," Lior said. "Your client owner person. Be honest and straightforward and answer any questions she has. I think it'll go fine.”

“And then give her your number?” He asked with a smile.

"After you give her yours.”

Alexei laughed a little. “We’ll see about that part.”

"Chickenshit," the three of them said in unison.

_I agree_ Yoda told him, having come up to the counter to sniff the food.

“Apparently that’s unanimous.”

"Good boy, Yoda," Judith said, holding out a little matzah for him to sniff.

“If I admit I’m chickenshit, can we change the subject?” Alexei asked.

"I suppose. Does anyone else have life crises they want to discuss?”

“The rest of us are boring,” Dimitri said. “Sorry.”

By mid afternoon, his siblings had departed, and Alexei cleaned his apartment while he turned over his thoughts. He went to the gym to swim, doing laps until his arms ached. It didn’t entirely help, but it did make him tired. 

In the morning he thought about what Lior said, and knew he needed to just rip off the bandaid.

Goliath had a PT appointment in the evening and he and Ms. Kennedy were exactly on time, as always. "We've been doing two or three hours without the wheelchair every day," she told him as they walked to the PT rooms. "He seems to tolerate that well.”

He nodded, and asked Goliath, _Any pain?_

After a long pause he replied, _Aches a little by the end of the day, but nothing when I'm walking._

_That’s pretty normal._ Alexei made chit chat with Ms. Kennedy until they got started. Then he asked, _How do you think she’d take it if I told her I could hear you?_

Goliath seemed to consider that. _She's very logical. But she talks to me like a person. She might understand._

_I think she’d like to hear your stories about Sarge._

His tail swished. _I'd like to tell them._


	3. Chapter 3

Sometimes Mallory thought she was going to miss Goliath's regular PT sessions. They had given her a nice routine and schedule to keep to while she processed Malcolm's death. Dr. T was a surprisingly soothing person to be around. She would miss these hours of quiet in her week.

“There’s something I want to talk to you about,” he said near the end of the appointment. It’s not bad, just. . . pretty weird, but I hope you’ll hear me out.” He paused. “I’m not hitting on you.”

Trying not to be too disappointed by that, she said, "I admit, my curiosity is piqued.”

He inclined his head. “Come back to my office?”

Goliath trotted at her side as they followed him down the hall to his office. She'd never been in his proper office, but found it a reflection of him. Tidy, welcoming and calm.

She sat at his guest chair, petting Goliath as he rested his head on her knee. "What is it?" she asked Dr. T.

He was quiet a moment. “Do you know who my mother is?”

"I do," she said hesitantly, not quite sure if she was supposed to or not. "My friend Nova is. . . very into New York gossip.”

“My siblings have told me it helps with the explanation. Her enhancements have proved to be hereditary. All my siblings and I have something.” He winced a little. “I know how crazy this sounds, but I can communicate telepathically with animals.”

Mallory stared at him a moment. Her first thought was that it sounded crazy. Then she remembered all the times he'd been silent and making faces like he was having a full conversation. And certainly his mother's powers were well documented ad established.

She looked down at Goliath, who was looking up at her with eager eyes. "Tell him what we did two days ago.”

He looked over at Goliath a moment. “You went to the beach with The Sparkly Lady.”

"Spark-" She snorted on a laugh and had to cough. "Oh, my God, I'm telling her you call her that.”

Dr. T laughed. “I take it that’s correct?”

"Yes, we drove down to a shore town to get some seafood and let him romp in the water. My friend Nova came with me and she is very glam. Sparkly is probably a good descriptor." She stroked Goliath's head. "Do you tell all of our clients this?”

“I’ve never told anyone before.”

She tilted her head. "Why tell me?”

“Two unrelated things. One is that my youngest sibling is works as an ASL interpreter. Lior. They. . . can tell when people are lying or telling the truth. Lior has a list of people who are innocent and were convicted and I mentioned once what you do. They’d like to show you the list.” He waved his hand. “Lior is an enby, sometimes the pronouns confuse people.”

That was a lot of information to process all at once. She sorted through it. "All right, I'm not really the best person to talk to, I mostly work with forensic methodology. Would I be able to tell any of the lawyers what-" She paused, pressing her lips together, trying to picture telling _any_ of the lawyers about this. Best case scenario was getting laughed out of their office. "No, of course not," she answered her own question. "If they give me the list I can look through the files and see if there's anything glaring I can use to pass it up the chain.”

“Thank you. They said there was one that was pretty glaring on paper. I imagine you are familiar with how the justice system treats disabled people.”

"Oh, absolutely. Especially deaf and hard of hearing people. They're second only to ESL suspects for civil rights abuses.”

He reached and opened a drawer in his desk. “This is the other reason.” He pulled out a notebook. “Goliath is very chatty, and during appointments likes to tell me stories about Sarge. I started writing them down.” He held the notebook out to her. “I have a twin sister,” he said, “and if anything happened to me, I’d want her to hear my stories.” She’d never mentioned they’d been twins. Goliath must have told him.

She half stood to reach for the notebook and was a little embarrassed that her hand shook when she took it. Flipping though, she read his neat handwriting, a story about Malcolm pranking one of his fellow handlers with a stuffed cat. She smiled, laughing a little even as her eyes burned. "Thank you," she said softly.

“Seemed worth risking you thinking I was crazy.”

"I only thought it for a second," she told him with a little smile.

He smiled, and then he turned and made a face at Goliath. They were clearly having a conversation, something that was very obvious now that she knew. Finally he cleared his throat and said, “He really strongly feels I should buy you dinner.”

She looked down at the dog. "Is this a commentary on my cooking?" He woofed and blinked at her innocently.

“I, uh, I think he’s yenta-ing.”

Her cheeks heated and she pointed a stern finger at Goliath. "You've been listening to Sparkly Lady too much.”

“Sparkly Lady is wise, and has good treats,” Dr. T said, clearly quoting him.

Mallory laughed, shaking her head. Then she cleared her throat. "I wouldn't say no to dinner.”

He grinned at her, and held out a hand. “Alexei.”

She reached out and took his hand. “Mallory."

“Saturday?”

"Perfect. I think you have my address.”

Mallory called Nova when she got home, and received the expected amount of shrieking in reply.

"Yes, yes, it's very exciting," Mal said when it had calmed down. "Does this count as dating a doctor? Is my mother having a moment somewhere in heaven?”

“I don’t know how lucrative being a vet is,” she replied. “My mother is mostly concerned about the paycheck. I don’t know if she’d be impressed. Actually my family is pretty anti-semitic, I think Stark money wouldn’t get her over that. His mom may hate you for the opposite, you know.”

"Yeah, that occurred to me. I remember when Tara was dating that Jewish studies boy. What's the word his mom called her? Shiska?”

“Shiksa. I mean, not everybody is like that. . . but most people who have that many kids are super religious. One of his brothers is a rabbi.”

Mallory blew out a breath, tossing a tennis ball towards her back fence for Goliath to chase. "You were so excited a minute ago, why are you trying to scare me?”

“I am excited. I think you should know what you’re getting into but definitely get into it.”

"It's just the first date," she reminded her.

"I know, I know," Nova said breezily. "But hey, if it does work, at least you won't be surprised he's circumcised."

"Oh, my God, Nova.”

“Hey, I’ve seen the pictures, he’s pretty hot.”

Mal couldn't help but think of the little flutters she'd gotten when he'd told her his first name. "He is very attractive," she conceded.

“You deserve a hot boyfriend.”

"It's one date," she repeated patiently.

“What can I say? I’m an optimist.”

"I appreciate your faith in me."

"Just don't talk about dead bodies all night."

"Crime is fascinating, Nova," she deadpanned.

“Only to you, Mallory.”

The rest of the week passed too slow and seemed over in a moment. Mallory spent Saturday morning running Goliath around the dog park. He was off his wheel chair more and more now. He limped a little at night, and was probably going to have some arthritis in a few years, but for the most part, seemed like a normal bear of a dog.

Alexei had told her he'd be by around 6, so she had plenty of time after the park to shower and get dressed. It was one of the few times in her life she wished she had Nova's wardrobe. It seemed wrong to have to wear work clothes to a date. 

Alexei was running a little late, but the whistle she got when she opened the door was worth the wait.

"I'm not sure this is worth a whistle, but thank you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You look very pretty. Don’t try to talk me out of it.”

She smiled, feeling shy. "You might have to talk Goliath out of joining us, he's been pacing by the door worse than me.”

Over her shoulder, he called, “I promise I will bring her home in one piece.”

There was a sharp, determined bark behind her. Mallory shook her head and closed the door. "Silly pupper.”

“I have to admit, this is a first. I’ve never gotten the ‘break her heart, I’ll break your face’ lecture from a dog. Well, ‘bite your face’.”

"I'm glad he can pivot from setting us up to threats so gracefully.”

He offered her his arm. When they got outside, there was a fancy-looking Mercedes on the curb. “It’s borrowed,” he told her.

"It's pretty," she offered.

“Most of us who live in the city don’t have cars, we just borrow from the motor pool at Avengers Tower. I don’t know who bought them, but it was probably one of the Starks, given. . .” He gestured as he opened the door.

She slipped into the seat, tucking her legs up so he could close the door. When he'd gotten in the drivers side, she said, "I admit I don't know much about cars.”

He laughed a little. “Neither do I. I’ve never owned one. Pretty sure my mother never did either. I spent most of my childhood in Wakanda, where they don’t have cars, and then we moved to the compound in Ithaca where they also have a motor pool.”

"What was Wakanda like?”

“Warm. Peaceful. Every bit as astonishingly advanced as you’ve heard. Only place in the world I’ve ever been that has no poverty. But it was also a little isolating. We lived mostly in a compound and never really fit in with the locals.” He pulled into the street. “But even that was a worthy experience. Knowing what it’s like to be a vastly outnumbered minority, how people stare and ask invasive questions. I am Jewish, but it’s not quite the same thing.” He looked over at her. “They also treat their animals _far_ better than Americans do. That was a rude awakening.”

"That must have been a culture shock." She tipped her head back on the headrest. "I've never been much of anywhere. Just a few conferences in the states. Never anywhere overseas.”

“I stopped eating meat when I came to the US. The rest of the world is really nice, and worth a visit. I do occasionally still go back to Wakanda. Which. . . might actually be the only place I _can_ go without hassle.”

She looked over at him. "Who hassles you?”

“The airlines. Or customs if I get it sorted with the airlines. I am—accidentally, I stress, before you leap from the car—on the terrorism watch list."

Mallory had to laugh a little. "No, no. You've piqued my curiosity again. How?”

“When I was a teenager my cousin and I went to a poultry farm and let all the chickens free. Took a week to round them up and they never did find all of them. I was the only one on the video cameras, and I was, for about five minutes, charged with eco-terrorism. My Aunt Sharon made some calls and it turned into vandalism and community service. But then somehow I was on the watch list.”

She laughed out loud. "That's amazing. I can't wait to tell everyone I'm dating an eco-terrorist.”

“My cousin Joe is a damn Congressman, and he can’t get me off the list.”

"You're far too interesting, I have nothing compared to that.”

“I’m really boring, I could just hear how miserable the chickens were, and my cousin was a troublemaker. She took my complaints and turned it into a heist. She moves faster than the camera’s frame rate and so it looked like I was alone.” He made a turn. “She’s an Avenger now. They have international passports.”

"How old were you when you started hearing animals?”

“Nine or ten. That’s when the powers come in. It started with cats, then expanded. The only animal I couldn’t hear was the Rogers’s cat. Who turned out to not actual _be_ a cat.”

She looked over at him. "Um. What was he?”

“An alien. And not was, is. He’s still alive. They’ve had him 40 odd years.”

"See, you can't say that ninety seconds after telling me you're boring.”

He inclined his head. “I am boring for the company I keep.”

Mallory was quiet a moment, thinking. She was generally pretty bad with small talk, but he had enough unique experiences she found herself not sure what to ask about first. "What's the most interesting animal to chat with?”

“Elephants,” he said after a moment of consideration. “They are astonishingly smart.”

"Oh! I've read that. They can recognize themselves in mirrors and things like that.”

“A couple of them harassed a bully of mine when I was a kid.”

"That was nice if them.”

“Let’s just say I had more animal friends than people at some points.”

She reached over and patted his leg lightly. "So where are we going for dinner?”

“I am taking you to my cousin’s restaurant, because their food is amazing. She’s on maternity leave and won’t actually be there to come out and glower or whatever, I promise.”

"I appreciate that, I think that would be too much for the first date." She paused. "Wait, you're taking me to Winter's Child?”

“Y-yes?”

"Oh, my god, that's amazing, Nova's going to kill me.”

He frowned. “Why?”

"She's been trying to get a reservation there for ages. I told you, she's really into all that gossipy New York socialite stuff.”

“You want me to get her a reservation?”

She considered a moment. "It would be an excellent way to suck up to her if you're trying to get in good with the best friend.”

“I will make a note of that.”

She laughed. "But I have heard they have amazing food.”


	4. Chapter 4

Excellent food aside, family connections aside, Winter’s Child was a great place for a date because it had those deep high-backed booths that made your seat feel private, and tucked away. That had been Alexei’s theory, anyway. He hadn’t been on an actual date in what might be years.

The only saving grace was that Mallory seemed just as nervous at him. She was polite and sweet and was clearly trying hard to make small talk, but had fidgeted her cocktail napkin into confetti.

"I admit I've run out of things to talk about," she said after their appetizers arrived. "I was firmly told not to talk about dead people.”

Alexei frowned. “Says who?”

"Nova - and a few previous men - have informed me it's not first date discussion.”

“Some men are shitheads. What does Nova do for a living?”

"She's an interior decorator.”

“Well I’m a scientist, and I would love to hear about your work.” He held up a finger. “No matter what whomever told you, it is completely impossible to weird me out. I hear pigeons.” 

"Oh, I bet pigeons are freaks." She paused, finger tracing through the condensation on her glass. "I'm currently working on some cases involving touch DNA. That's DNA from skin cells left by someone handling an item. New York used to seriously abuse it as conviction evidence, and we're still trying to clean up the mess. We're also lobbying to disallow it as evidence, but that's a long battle.”

“So that’s not accurate? I don’t know anything about how that stuff works.”

"Not as accurate as direct DNA. Something like blood or semen or even saliva pretty much puts a person at the scene that said DNA was found. If drops of your blood are found at a murder scene, you need to be able to explain how that happens. Touch DNA isn't like that. If I shake your hand, some of your skin cells transfer to my hand. If I shake someone else's hand, they get both of our skin cells on them. If that person then picks up a gun and kills someone, it's possible - using touch DNA - that our skin cells would transfer onto the gun." She sipped her drink. "When DNA was first being tested, they didn't have the technology to accurately test touch DNA, but in the early teens a system was created to replicate small DNA samples into a sufficient sample to test. The problem with that is the integrity of the sample decreases the more you have to replicate it. Like photocopying a photocopy. So instead of a result on direct DNA matches with an error rate of one in eighty billion, you get something that is 'statistically likely to be from someone of Jewish descent.’"

“That sounds terrifying.”

"If it's being used against you in court, it certainly is. At the time all those CSI shows were very popular so just the _mention_ of DNA could sway a jury. One of the earlier cases we got overturned was a man from a close knit Jewish neighborhood in New York - Williamsburg - who was accused of a hate crime because they claimed to find his skin cells on the victim's shoe. The problem is the DNA match was so degraded that _literally_ anyone in the neighborhood could have supplied the sample. I've read the case file, it's horrifying.”

“I believe it,” he said. “The one on Lior’s list that they specifically called out was a deaf man who was provided no interpreter or transcription and somehow managed to ‘confess’ to a crime. The judge ruled the man able to lipread and said that was sufficient. Lior had to explain what he’d even been charged with the day trial started.”

She blew out a breath and shook her head. "That's really common with people who don't speak or read English. The only bright side is something like that is a clear civil rights violations. I've already passed on several of the cases that met those criteria on to the right people.”

“Thank you,” he said quietly. She smiled back at him and it struck him just how pretty she was.

They managed to keep up a steady chain of conversation over dinner. She definitely lit up talking about her work, clearly she was passionate about it. Alexei had never given much thought to forensic science, but listening to someone as enthusiastic as her could make any topic fascinating. After a while the topic wandered to other things, like family.

"So, you can talk to animals and your sibling can tell when people are lying," she said as they waited for their coffee and dessert. "Do any of your other siblings have powers?”

“All eight of us. As do the two daughters of my mother’s brother. My siblings and I are all diluted; our powers are lighter than Mom or my Uncle Pietro. My two first cousins are just as strong. The Avenger I mentioned is Agata Maximoff. We think my aunt is enhanced, too, which is why.”

"I have an eidetic memory. Perfect recall of every day of my life, starting around age two. It's why I'm such a good researcher." She fiddled with her mostly empty glass. "They tested me in grade school, there was mutterings about if I was enhanced or not. But my brother didn't show any signs and it didn't significantly effect my life, so they mostly dropped it.”

“My aunt seems to be the only one in her family, and that made everyone dither and decide she wasn’t enhanced—she picks up languages in the time it takes most people to figure out how to ask ‘Where is the bathroom?’ but it’s not impossible to just be like that. How the kids came out changed everyone’s mind.” He nodded at her. “You probably are enhanced.” 

They’d certainly have enhanced children. Which was a completely ridiculous thing to even think about on a first date.

"Like I said, it doesn't significantly effect my life. It's useful at work, I can look like a wizard, whipping out some precedent setting case." She smiled a little wanly as the waiter set down their desserts. "There's a couple memories I might like to dim a bit, of course.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I don’t know if I’d want to remember every day of my life.”

She lifted a shoulder and poured some cream into her coffee. "I'm good at compartmentalizing.”

“I have been very lucky in my relative lack of tragedy,” he said. “Must be tough.”

"It is. Malcolm was the last of my family. I knew when he joined up there was a chance-" She sighed and flashed a little smile. "I miss him. I think I always will. But it was his passion and purpose in life. The stories you gave me help.”

“Good,” he said. “I hoped they would, and not bring you further grief.”

"It's like reading the emails we sent back and forth. It's a connection to him. It's good memories.”

He ate his exceedingly delicious chocolate torte for a moment. “So can you do the Sherlock Holmes thing at all?”

She tilted her head. "Sherlock Holmes thing?”

“Where you remember lots of tiny details and put together some sort of conclusion. I know a couple of people with a memory of your caliber and they do that sometimes.”

"Oh! Yes. I used to do it as a party trick in college. Malcolm would tell people I could read minds," she added with a smile. "Some of the lawyers who've known me a long time will have me sit in on meetings and see if I pick up on anything, but knowing the opposing council enjoys certain dance clubs or plays the oboe isn't that handy.”

“TV makes that stuff look more relevant, doesn’t it?”

"Cases almost never hang on a single obscure realization," she said. "But I imagine it's good drama.”

“Entertainment is better with drama. Life is better without it.”

She lifted her coffee cup with a smile. "Amen to that.”

A perk of him being the restaurant owners’ family was that nobody hassled them away from their table, and they could have sat there all night. But he’d already gotten squeezed in, the longer they sat the more hassle they were causing for the host up front. They couldn’t hog the table forever.

“I had a nice night,” he told her as they walked out.

"So did I," she said. "Really nice.”

“I would love to do this again,” he said.

She looked up at him, smiling. "Me too." She tilted her head. "Can I kiss you?”

He stopped walking and turned. “Right here on the sidewalk? Whatever will the town gossips say?”

She ducked her head. "I saw this movie. . . when I was a kid. Guy and girl have a fight, girl leaves, guy chases after her and kisses her under a street light. I thought it was the most romantic thing ever. I just thought, handsome guy, street light." She gestured to the light next to them.

He reached up and traced his fingers down the side of her face and along her jaw. “You have good ideas,” he said, and then he pulled her close enough to kiss. She melted into him, tucking her arms around his waist. She tipped her head back leaning into the kiss.

They were on a sidewalk in Manhattan, street bustling because for the city this wasn’t even late. . . but somehow the entire world seemed to drift away. He cupped her face in both hands, to hold her and let it take off.

He felt her shiver and her fingers flex on his back. She was soft, and warm, and tasted sweet like her dessert.

Someone walking past whistled and Mal giggled against his mouth. Alexei lifted his head enough to kiss the tip of her nose.

She smiled. "That went above and beyond expectations.”

“I’d love to do that again, too.”

"Me, too," she said softly.

He cupped her elbow in his hand. “There will be less hecklers in the car.”

"Are we gonna make out in the car?" she teased. "I've never done that.”

He put his arm around her. “How deprived was your youth?”

She shrugged. "I was not popular with the boys. Or the girls. Or anyone but my brother.”

Alexei nodded, understanding. He’d been an awkward kid. “The only reason I didn’t get beat up is because of my cousins.” 

"The biological ones or the ones raised by Captain America and the Hulk?”

“I think the one mostly likely to take a swing at bullies was the one raised by Doc and the Winter Soldier. Temperamentally inclined, and also in my class.” He shrugged. “But I ran with all of them. I started middle school the fall we moved back from Wakanda, and there were. . .” He counted. “Fifteen Avenger children going into the Ithaca school system. Nine were at the middle school with me. We all looked out for each other.” It had taken the school assholes a couple months to really understand to leave him alone, but he could always feel it. By high school, Joe and George and Roger were the most popular boys in school. Alexei and AJ rode their wake and cleaned up a lot of their messes.

"Malcolm and I were night and day. He was the popular, charming, athlete and I was nerdy and quiet and had a limp. If I hadn't been his sister I imagine I would have been bullied constantly.”

“Esther—that’s my twin—is vastly more outgoing than I am."

"I was always jealous of outgoing girls. Who knew how to dress or wear makeup and talk to boys. I could remember things about people and tried to use that to make small talk but most of the time people found it weird.”

They reached the car and he opened the door for her. “Smalltalk is overrated.”

"You're good at being companionably silent," she said, slipping into her seat and tucking up her legs.

“I even know how to think quietly,” he said, and went around to his side.

Mallory didn't respond until after he'd pulled out of the parking spot. "Do you have family members who eavesdrop?”

“My mother can’t help but hear loud thoughts. The closer she is to someone, the easier it is to hear them. So us kids. . .”

"That sounds like it has the potential for intense embarrassment.”

“For everyone in our house. You have no idea.”

Another moment of silence, then she laughed. "I'm really glad my dad couldn't read my thoughts as a teenager.”

Alexei laughed. “Yeah.”

She gave him a sly look. "Pretty glad no ones around to read it now.”

“I don’t know,” he said, looking at her because he was stopped at a light. “I might not mind.”

"Are there any people you can read?" she asked. "Your mom? Your twin?”

“Mom and about half my siblings, if I try. Though not Esther. It only works with the ones with thought-related powers.”

"Esther doesn't?"

He shook his head. "She can create force fields. Strong enough to block a bullet or hold ing a bomb. Not that she's tried those particular tricks."

She tilted her head. He'd noticed she did that when a particularly interesting piece of information had been presented to her. "Interesting. It's like your mother's powers splintered. That's unlike any sort of genetic trait I've ever heard of.”

“Nobody understands how enhancements inherit. My Aunt Amanda was involved in research on it. My cousins I mentioned, they have much more logical inheritances. One a copy of her father, one a blend of both parents. With us it was like. . . mom has two different powers and they were carried on different genes. Stumping Doc is a feat.”

"Genetics and neurology aren't my fortes but I'd love to peek at her research if possible. It's sounds fascinating.”

“I can absolutely put her in touch. She’s mostly retired now and loves talking to young scientists.”

Her eyes widened. "I don't need to talk directly to her.”

“Why not?”

"Because she's Dr. Newbury and I will die.”

“She’s perfectly nice. When talking to young scientists.”

"What about when talking to her nephew's girlfriend?”

He laughed. “My family isn’t that protective of me. At least, not that wing.”

"All right." She blew out a breath. "I can probably talk to her as a colleague.”

“I promise she won’t measure you for a wedding dress.”

"Very reassuring.”

Alexei parked the car in the red-zone in front of her apartment building. “So. Next weekend?”

She nodded. "If you want . . . I could cook something.”

He grinned. “That sounds wonderful.” He was illegally parked, but he leaned over and kissed her anyway. He felt her sigh and she leaned in to return the kiss, her fingers trailing along his jaw. They kissed until they ran out of air, and he rested his forehead against hers. “Sometimes I wish I was a different kind of guy.”

"The kind to take advantage of me in your car?" she teased.

“Ask to come in for a drink. Ask you back to my place. Etc.”

"Well," she said quietly. "Maybe next time.” 

He kissed her again. “Okay. But I won’t hold you to it. We’ll take whatever time we need.”

She nodded. "I'll call you this week," she said, gathering her purse and opening the car door. 

Alexei waved, and stayed there until she got safely inside.


	5. Chapter 5

"I will not give you details, but we did have a lovely time," Mallory told Nova when she materialized with donuts the next morning. "He took me to Winter's Child.”

“He did not! Oh, he must have an ‘in’, Edie Barnes is one of his cousins.”

"Yes. She's on maternity leave, so I avoided interrogation." She chose a cream filled donut and sat at her kitchen bar. "If you're very nice he might get you reservations.”

“How was the food?”

"It was delicious." She tore off a bit of pastry that didn't have chocolate on it and tossed it to Goliath. "The company was even better.”

“Yeah? How much better?”

Mallory considered how much to say. "He really listens to me. About everything. And we had fascinating conversations about science and his family and . . . just everything.”

“Did you talk about the dead bodies?” Nova asked, but it didn’t sound accusatory.

"I did. Also DNA.”

Nova grinned. “Second date?”

"This weekend. I'm cooking him dinner.”

Nova finished her pastry and licked her fingers. “And breakfast, I hope.”

She inclined her head. "It's on the table.”

“You got condoms?”

Now she blushed, and she'd been doing so well. “No."

Nova pinned her with a look. “Do you need me to go buy you some?”

She hesitated a moment, trying to decide what was more embarrassing, then just nodded.

The bag from the drug store Nova ended up bringing her contained four different kind of condoms, three different kinds of lube, and a bottle of cranberry juice.

"What kind of weekend are you planning for me?" Mallory asked, holing up the juice.

“Better safe than sorry, dude. Drink it in the morning.”

"Is that the voice of experience speaking?" she asked, sticking it in the fridge.

“Yes. Especially with a new guy, after a dry spell. . . bad things can happen.”

"Were I a virgin you would be frightening me right now.”

“That’s why we lose our virginity young.”

"Some of us." She tucked the bag behind her bedroom door. "Thank you for the supplies.”

Nova hugged her. “Have good sex.”

Mal smiled, hugging her tight. "Thank you. I hope so. Don't be too disappointed if I need more time."

“As long as you are happy, I am happy.”

"Thank you," she said again, softly. For a moment she nuzzled her face into Nova's shoulder. "You're a good friend.”

Nova chuckled a little. “Aw, thank you. So are you.”

Mallory nodded and stepped back. "You want to head to the dog park with us? Goliath needs some running around time.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun.” Nova rubbed her arm. “You deserve to be happy, you know.”

Her throat worked. "Every time I'm happy it gets taken away.”

“Maybe this is the time you get to keep it.”

She nodded and blew out a breath, mustering a smile. "Son of a superhero. He's probably pretty sturdy.”

“I read he was born in Wakanda, too.”

"He was. He told me about. He still speaks Wakandan.”

“See? They’re extra sturdy.”

"I know. I know. He's not going anywhere." Goliath came over to lean on her legs and she rubbed his head. "Thanks buddy. I know you're sticking around too.”

“Come on. Let’s go to the park and you can tell me about what you’re planning to cook.”

They had a great time at the dog park, successfully wearing Goliath out. She texted Alexei in the afternoon, on Nova's orders, including a couple pictures of the the dog romping.

She spent the rest of the week like normal, going to work, running Goliath around. Nova had teased her in the early days that she'd had to take up marathon running. It hadn't gotten that far, but she was definitely more active than she'd ever been. If only her old PE teachers could see her now.

On Saturday, she focused her nerves on the meal she was making. 

It was all stuff she'd made before, slightly modified because Alexei was a vegetarian. She had veggie based chili heating in the slow cooker while she took Goliath out on a nice long afternoon jog. Back home she had enough time to shower and dry and curl her hair before getting back into the kitchen to work on the next thing. She was just finishing when her door buzzed. 

When she opened the door, she found he’d brought her flowers. And he had his hair down, which she’d never seen before. He kept it back in the clinic and it had been the same the other night. It hit his shoulders and was wildly curly.

"Oh. Wow," she said, taking the flowers from him. "You look amazing.”

He leaned in to kiss her. “So do you.”

She smiled, face heating. "Come in. Dinner's almost ready.”

“Mallory,” he said as he followed her.

"You're not vegan, right? There's some cream and goat cheese in the polenta." She stopped at her kitchen and turned to look back at him. “Yes?"

“It’s okay if we just eat.”

She flashed a smile. "I know. I trust you. But I'm hoping for more.”

He smiled back. “Me, too. Just checking.”

"Good." She checked her polenta and gave it a stir. "Do you drink? I have wine, or there's soda and juice in the fridge.”

“Wine sounds lovely,” he replied. “Point me, I’ll get it.”

"There's a rack in that cabinet," she said, pointing. "Glasses are over the sink. This is ready if you'd like to pour.”

He got the bottle and glasses, bringing them over to the table and pouring them each half a glass. “That smells delicious and I am definitely not vegan. I get my own diary products from ethical sources but I don’t impost that on others. And I actually do eat fish.”

Mallory plated up bowls of polenta and spooned chili on top, adding a dollop of sour cream before bringing them to the table."What about shellfish? I have a great poached scallop recipe.”

“Shellfish is fine. I just don’t eat animals I can hear.”

"Fair enough." She set the bowls down and smiled as he pulled her chair out for her. "Thank you.”

“This sincerely smells delicious,” he told her as he sat.

"I've made it before with meat, but making it vegetarian was pretty straightforward. I hope you like it.”

They dug in, and then Goliath wandered out to say hello. “No way, buddy,” Alexei said. “I can taste the onion.”

"I gave you gushy food after our jog," Mallory said patiently.

“It’s people food,” Alexei told her.

"Nova spoils him." She pointed to the kitchen. "I have some left over polenta. Is that okay for him to have?”

“Yeah, there’s just union in the chilli, and that’s bad for dogs.”

"I know, I have the list printed on the fridge." She stood and scooped out the last couple spoonfuls into a dog bowl and put it down for Goliath to munch on.

“He doesn’t like it, but he’s eating it anyway,” Alexei commented. “Because you made it.”

"That's very sweet," she said, giving him a little pat before rejoining Alexei at the table. "I'll give him another treat later. Since we're probably kicking him out of his bed tonight.”

He cleared his throat. “I’ll talk to him.”

She felt her cheeks heat. "When I let him start sleeping there, I did not have a relationship in mind.”

He smiled. “Life kind of happens like that, doesn’t it?”

"My mom used to say 'if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.’"

“That sounds like something my mother would say."

That made her smile. "Mom would probably have been flattered by that. Your mom sounds very wise.”

“She loves to give all advice in cryptic one-liners.”

"Was that frustrating growing up?”

She could see him actually pause to consider that. “Sometimes. Mostly we were all used to it. There are 8 of us, some things need to be economized.”

"Including parental advice?”

“Some of that is the whole physic thing. She knows things, but she doesn’t want to interfere too much in people’s lives. Hence, cryptic.”

Mal tilted her head. "That makes sense. I don't think I'd want to know things that are going to happen." She ate a few bites of food. She was nervous enough she didn't have a lot of appetite, but didn't think being starving later would do her any favors. "Does she know about me?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, they all know about you.”

His apparent embarrassment was kind of endearing. "All nine of them?”

“Nobody has any secrets. How far the tentacles stretch I don’t know, but we’re like an Old World village. I asked for advice on, well, outing myself.” He smirked a little and ate another bite. “Can’t get much past an empath and a human lie detector.” 

"Oh, that explains why Lior occasionally wanders into friendly interrogation when I talk to them." She sipped her wine. "It sounds nice, though. Having a village like that.”

“I’m sorry about Lior. It is genuinely nice, if insular.” He scraped up the last of his chili. “The was really good, by the way.”

You didn't have to be Lior to know he was telling the truth. One of the things she liked best about him was that he seemed very genuine. "Thank you. I'm glad you liked it.”

He insisted on cleaning up and loading the dishwasher. No two people on earth loaded a dishwasher the same way, so she was concerned, but he was very efficient about it.

At that point, she really wasn't sure what to do. Did they go directly to sex? Should she suggest watching a movie or would he interpret that as her trying to bow out? She should have asked Nova, but she probably would have said just to jump him. Which might be the right answer, but was a lot easier said than done.

He rinsed his hands and leaned against the counter, just watching her a moment. “You do this lip-biting thing when you’re nervous and I feel vaguely guilty about how hot I find it."

She laughed a little, feeling some tension ease. "We can look at it as a feature, I'm nervous a lot.”

He pushed off the counter, and came close enough to dip his head down and kiss her. She really liked how he kissed. He was gentle, and very patient, but there was an intensity running underneath that assured her he wanted her.

Tucking her arms around his waist, she took a step closer so they were pressed together. He didn’t let the kiss get out of hand, instead lifting his head to murmur, “You want to take the wine to the living room, or. . .”

"I'm not really. . . I don't know how this usually goes.”

“It goes how ever we want it to go, honey.” He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “I don’t think there is a usual way.” He paused. “Except I really don’t want to do that thing they do in movies where we rip our clothes off and end up on some weird piece of furniture. I’m almost 40, I can’t handle that.” Said the man who she’d seen lift her 80lb dog like Goliath was a beagle.

"Honestly, given what I now know about Goliath's intelligence, I don't think I want to do anything where he can watch.”

Alexei laughed. “Fair.” One or maybe both of them moved and they were kissing again. He didn’t seem inclined to stop, nor did he seem in any particular hurry. She’d always found him to be considerate, thorough, and very observant. It was probably going to make for great sex.

"We could take the wine to the bedroom," she offered quietly.

“That sounds like an excellent idea.”

He grabbed the glasses and she gave Goliath the last of the doggie cupcakes in the pantry before picking up the bottle and leading Alexei into her bedroom.

It was as tidy as the rest of her house, but more personal. Nova liked to tease her that her living room looked like a hotel because she didn't have a lot of pictures or knick knacks. She saved those for her bedroom, including a line of family pictures on her dresser, a collection of candles on her nightstand, and several souvenirs her brother had sent from his travels.

“It’s very cozy in here,” he replied.

"My little oasis," she said, lighting some of the candles. "So I can shut out the world and relax.”

He walked over to look out the window. “I appreciate the invitation."

"I find you relaxing," she admitted, sitting on the edge of her bed. "I can be myself around you.”

“I have been told that. My Dad is the same, as was my grandfather, so it’s apparently genetic. According to Aunt Amanda we have exceptionally steady cortisol levels. My family has a disproportionately high number of surgeons.”

Mal smiled. "I really love that you have a scientific reason behind it.”

“My younger brother is a rabbi. Science is my religion as much as Judaism is his. ”

"I suppose it's that way for me. Always has been. I liked things to be logical and make sense, I never accepted the kid-version explanations for anything. Dad said I was the most serious baby he ever saw." She paused, rubbing her leg a little. "I feel like I should mention, I have a lot of scars. On my leg. I was in a car accident and had to have a lot of surgeries.”

He leaned over to kiss her. “Perfection is boring.”

She smiled and rested her forehead on his. "You're not boring at all.”

“And I am definitely not perfect.” He kissed her again. “For example, I would really love to stop talking.”

She sank into the kiss, sighing happily. "Okay," she murmured, in the breath before kissing him again. There was less gentleness, and less patience in it now, but she didn’t mind. He also somehow managed to get both of their wine glasses out of their hands and onto her nightstand, and then he pulled her closer.

Giving into an urge she'd been fighting all night, she sunk a hand into his hair, winding her fingers through it. It was silky soft against her skin. He seemed to enjoy the petting, deepening the kiss as she played with his hair. His hands slid down her back, and he tugged her shirt up enough to tuck his hands underneath and stroke his fingers along her spine.

The feel of his hands on her all but took her breath away. She took a moment to enjoy it before lifting her arms so he could tug the shirt up and off. She was very glad they'd stayed at her place so she'd felt comfortable skipping a bra. He chuckled and it was a deeper, rougher sound. “Wondered about that all night.”

She couldn't help but grin, even if she was a little breathless. "Figured they bounce enough to leave no room for doubt.”

He cupped one in his palm, the touch making her shiver. “Seemed rude to stare.”

"I probably wouldn't have noticed," she said honestly. He stroked his thumb around her nipple and it tightened. She sucked in a sharp breath and the stab of pleasure it caused.

He bent to kiss along her collarbone. “Noted.”

For a moment she just closed her eyes and enjoyed it. It had been a lot of years since she'd been with anyone. Generally, that didn't bother her. She'd always had long gaps between boyfriends. But she'd sort of forgotten how nice it could feel to be held and kissed and touched. Especially they deliberate, sensual way he was doing it.

The existence of his shirt began to annoy her and she gave it a deliberate tug in the hopes he'd take it off. He made a slightly grumpy noise and leaned back enough to yank it over his head and carelessly toss it behind her.

It was well worth it. He looked like a greek statue shirtless. "Are you sure you're not a superhero?" she asked, running her hands along his arms. 

“Genes and vibrianium,” he replied. “I don’t even have a gym membership.”

"Is it bad I find it extremely hot?”

“I’m completely okay with being objectified by the woman sitting in my lap.”

She glanced down. She hadn't even realized he'd tugged her fully into his lap. She laughed a little and leaned in to kiss him, sliding her hands along his skin. He leaned backwards on the bed, pulling her on top of himself.

Laying down somehow felt more intense. His hands roamed her back and his chest was very firm beneath her. The kissing quickly got more urgent and deep. Her skin felt flushed and she found herself arching and pressing into him as she felt herself grow wet. She could feel his hands tracing around the top edge of her pants, looking for the fastening, before sighing and rolling them over to get a better look. 

He pushed up on one arm and just gazed down at her, the kind of look you could almost feel, and flattened a hand over her abdomen. “So what’s the birth control situation?”

"Um." Her hands fluttered a little helplessly, since she didn't know where to put them. "There's a CVS bag next to the beg with a variety of condoms to choose from.”

“Handy.” He popped the button on her pants and slid his hand inside. She opened them on sheer instinct, which made him smile. They were half undressed, yeah, but this was entirely intimate and his fingers moved so slowly the anticipation made her ache.

When his fingers finally skimmed along the folds of her sex, she thought she might come off the bed entirely. She settled for lifting her hips up, breath catching in her chest. He pressed two fingers against her clit, watching her reaction to find the right rhythm. She was never entirely comfortable ordering a lover around, but she did her best to give him clues.

When he did finally dial into her preferred pressure and speed, she gasped and curled her hand around his wrist, squeezing lightly to keep him there. He dipped his head to kiss her again, and it it was incongruously slow and languid compared to the way he was touching her.

She cupped his face, fingers tangling in his hair again. It distracted her briefly while he stroked her. Heat built up in her and her hips began to rock with his rhythm. He shifted a little, pressing firmly against her and deepening the kiss. The little change tipped her over the edge and she started to shudder with the pleasure pouring through her. He lightened up but didn’t entirely stop, drawing it out as long as he could, until she writhed and whimpered into his mouth. Her ears were ringing. It might be the best sex she’d had in maybe ever, and they still had their pants on.

He eased his hand away, stroking damp fingers along her stomach as she calmed and caught her breath.

"Wow," she managed to whisper.

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Feel better?”

"I felt pretty good before. Now I'm euphoric.”

“I was hoping to shake the nerves out of you.”

She traced a pattern on his forearm with her fingernail. "I think you succeeded.”

He gently pulled down the hand she had tangled in his hair, and kissed the inside of her wrist before sitting up and leaning over the edge of the bed. “I did bring my own condoms but I am interested in your selection." She heard the bag crinkle and then he sat up with it. “That is quite the selection.”

"Um. In the interest of full disclosure, Nova got them for me. And lube. And cranberry juice.”

“So the ‘tropical flavors’ condoms aren’t a request?” 

"Oh my God." Clearly she should have gone through the bag before letting him look. Sitting up, she took the box from him, reading the back. "This is a yeast infection waiting to happen." Alexei cleared his throat and looked like he was debating whether or not to say something. Which was about when she realized they weren't supposed to be used for that kind of sex. "Oh God," she muttered, covering her face in her hands.

“I’m putting the bag back on the floor,” he said, taking the flavored box as well. He did at least sound very amused. “She’s a good friend. She covered the major sex options, and the major issues. It’s like Goldilocks went to Good Vibrations.”

Mal shook her head. "Nova is very thorough. And she is in favor of me getting some.”

He stood up, to get his condoms out of the pocket of his jeans, and she watched him. It was honestly kind of surreal to have a man that good looking standing shirtless at the foot of her bed.

He noticed the stare. “What?”

She wasn't sure if there was a good way to express you thought the person who was about to sleep with you was way out of your league. "I'm still wrapping my head around the fact you're here.”

“There is nowhere on this entire planet I would rather be right now,” he told her, bending to tug on the fabric of her pants to he could pull them off. Bracing on her elbows, she was able to lift her hips so he could get them off. This was usually the point a man suggested getting under the covers, she she braced herself for that, but very determinedly didn't move to hide her leg. 

Alexei smiled at her, then put a knee on the bed to lean down. He skimmed his hands up her legs from the ankles, coming down enough to kiss her scarred knee, his hair brushing against her thigh. She stroked his hair, sifting it through her fingers. "I have a bunch of metal in there. Added to your terrorist status, we should probably never fly anywhere.”

His mouth moved up her thigh. “We’ll make our own fun.”

"This is pretty fun," she said, voice squeaking a little.

“Yeah?” He gently pulled her underwear down.

She wiggled and bent her legs so he could get them off. They went into the growing pile somewhere on her floor. “Yeah."

He pushed her legs apart and she let him, groaning when his fingers slid over her sex again. This time he followed them with his mouth. She moaned and tipped her head back on the pillow, eyes closed so she could focus solely on his touch. He clearly applied what he'd learned touching her to this and soon her legs were trembling with anticipation of another climax.

But he stopped before she got there, dropping a smacking kiss below her navel before sitting up to unbutton and kick off his jeans, which he seemed annoyed to find himself still wearing.

She recalled being told in Sex Ed as a teenager not to open condom packets with your teeth, but that did not stop it from being a little hot watching a man do it.

She watched him roll it on, which was probably not proper etiquette, but she wanted to be able to do it herself sometime and this was probably a better tutorial than a banana. When he was done, he leaned in to kiss her and she wound her arms around him, tugging him down to her. There was real hunger in it, like perhaps she had found the end of his superhuman patience.

He pushed her down into the mattress and she opened her legs for him. The head of his cock brushed against her folds and she shivered before reaching down and helping him line up. She had to tip her hips up a little to get a good angle. Then he was sinking into her and she let out a long, low moan in a voice she didn't recognize.

His groan was the same, if an octave deeper. For a moment he was still, letting her adjust. There was a definite stretch, but he'd wound her up good and mostly she felt hot and achey and ready for him to move.

She stretched up to rest her forehead on his. "I'm good," she whispered.

“You feel good,” he whispered back. He pulled out a little and pushed back in, short strokes, sighing when he bottomed out.

"So do you." He kissed her and she tangled her hands in his hair again. He sank deep into her and she bent her legs, lifting her knees as high as she could on his sides so he had the best angle to drive into her. He hit some spot inside her, over and over, until it was more than she could take.

Her fingers tightened in his hair, possibly painfully, but then the first wave of her orgasm rolled through her and she was past caring. She could feel her body clenching and flexing around him as she shook with the force of her pleasure.

“Fuck,” he gasped, perhaps the first time she’d ever heard him curse. It was a distant observation, because she was floating on a cloud at the moment. He shuddered and stilled, his fingers digging into the thigh of hers he was holding.

After a few endless moments he sank down on top of her. Mallory closed her eyes and sighed in pleasure, enjoying the feel of him pressing into her. She tucked her face into the curve of his throat and just enjoyed the moment.

Slowly he pushed up on his elbow, lifting his hand to brush damp hair off her forehead. “Hello, gorgeous.”

She smiled, "Hi," she said softly.

He sighed contentedly, and kissed her. “Be right back.”

She nodded and held still as he eased out of her and got up to dispose of the condom. She should probably get under the covers while he was gone, but she felt lazy and languid and decided to stretch and relax instead.

“Isn’t that a nice view,” he said when he returned. He certainly seemed perfectly comfortable sauntering around naked.

"Mmm. I could not find the motivation to move.”

“Then I have definitely done my job,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

She reached over and touched his hip with the tips of her fingers. "Will you stay the night?”

“I would love to.”

That was enough to get her to stir and pull the covers down. She usually wore shorts and a tank to bed, but he seemed uninterested in getting dressed and she liked the idea of being skin to skin with him.

He tucked her up against his side and kissed the top of her head. “You know, I don’t think it’s even 9 PM.”

"You were very efficient in your lovemaking.”

Alexei laughed out loud. “Thanks. And now we have time for more. There is a whole bag of condoms.”

"Are some of them normal, non horrifying ones?”

He leaned over and snagged the bag, bringing it up to dump out on the side of the bed. He held up one box. “This one is supposed to be so thin you can’t feel it.” He picked up another one. “This one says it is “ribbed and dotted”—does that stuff actually work on you?”

She took the box and studied it, casting back through her mental files to see if she'd ever used them. "My college boyfriend tried them a couple times. I don't recall feeling any difference. The main factor in if I come from intercourse is usually length and depth.”

“Good to know I’m apparently the right size.” He frowned at the box, and flipped it over. “The insides are lined with benzocaine. Yikes.”

"Jesus. How is that legal? There has to be better ways to make someone last longer.”

“I mean. . . it’s not harmful, per se. I believe that’s what they’d use at a bris, so I’ve probably actually had some on there once. But I just feel like a numb penis does not make for good sex.”

"Given my line of work I'm wary of products that give people drugs they are likely unaware of or don't fully understand." She took the box and tossed it in the corner. "I veto those and will strongly suggest to Nova she no longer purchase them.”

“Well. We have four usable condoms. Think that’ll last the night?”

Her cheeks felt hot, but she found the nerve to say, "If they don't we could always find a use for those tropical ones.”

He grinned widely. “Deal.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for mentions of domestic violence.

They stayed up late depleting her condom supply, with occasional pauses to snack and nap. Around two AM they fell asleep for good, laying curled up together.

Alexei woke before her in the morning. Mostly because he could hear Goliath in the living room demanding to be let out and get his breakfast. He got up carefully, put his jeans on and went out into the living room.

The dog was waiting expectantly at the patio door. He thumped his tail when he saw Alexei. _I go out precisely at seven thirty._

Alexei opened it. “We were busy.”

_Yes, so I heard. And smelled._ He trotted out into the yard, sniffing as if he'd never been there before.

“Thank you for not charging the door,” he called after Goliath, and then went into the kitchen to find the coffeemaker.

It was just starting to fill the pot when the front door jangled and opened. "I waited an extra hour just in case but I simply cannot-" A woman's voice grew louder until she appeared in the kitchen doorway. She was in her thirties, with the accent of a native-born Indian who'd spent at least a couple decades stateside. She had on a very brightly colored top and large earrings the glittered and clacked as she moved her head. This, he assumed, was Nova, aka Sparkly Lady.

"Holy hell the internet pictures do not do you justice," she said, propping a hand on her hip.

He crossed his arms over his chest, wishing he’d put a shirt on. “Thanks. Your taste in condoms has left me with many questions.”

"I tried to cover all the bases," she said, seemingly unfazed. She set a bakery box on the island counter. "Your presence certainly answers most of my questions. I think the last time Mal didn't hustle a man out of her room as soon as polite was college.”

“Well, you know. I had to earn my dinner.”

She chuckled at that. "Well, I will leave you guys to enjoy your baked goods in peace. It was nice to meet you in person.”

“Nice to meet you, too. You sure you don’t want to stick around until Mallory gets up?”

"I don't want her to be embarrassed. I seriously wouldn't have come if I thought you'd still be here. I'll text her this afternoon.”

Alexei nodded. “Thank you for the donuts.”

"Enjoy."

She turned to step out of the kitchen and bumped into Mallory on her way in. "Hi, sorry, I was leaving."

Mal's cheeks were pink, and she looked adorably rumpled with her bed head hair, but she managed to give Nova a stern look. "We need to discuss your condom choices."

"Oh for- The edible ones were a joke!”

Alexei went to get himself a donut. “She brought us breakfast.”

"It's Sunday tradition," Mal said.

"Do you need juice?" Nova asked her.

He had no idea why that made her blush darken, but she nodded and Nova turned on her heel and headed for the fridge.

Mallory took advantage of the clear path to step forward and slide her arms around him. “Morning."

“Good morning,” he told her, leaning down for a kiss. “I let the dog out.”

"Thank you. Was he grumpy about being locked out?”

“A little, but less than I expected.” He rocked her a little. “How are are you feeling?”

"Good. Little tired." Nova handed her a glass of red juice, then headed out into the living room to give them space. "Little sore," Malory admitted, sipping the juice.

“Perhaps we should have paced ourselves.”

"Yeah. That definitely can't be the benchmark for our evenings together." She smiled and kissed his cheek. "Was fun, though.”

“I was thinking of taking a shower. And then you can go talk to Nova.”

"I promise it will be entirely complimentary.”

“I believe you.” He tipped her face up to kiss her, and went out of the kitchen, waving at Nova as he went.

Her bathroom was tidy and organized, her soap and shampoo were high end and unscented. When he came back out, clean and fully dressed, he found the ladies in the living room, with coffee and the donuts, Goliath stretched on the couch between them.

Mallory smiled when she saw him, a sweet, open smile that warmed him up. "I saved you a cup.”

“Thank you!” He got himself the coffee came back out into the living room. 

Nova was getting up. "I'll leave you guys to have some privacy," she said, holding out a hand to shake his. "Nice meeting you. Hurt her and I sic the dog on you, you know the drill.”

“I absolutely do. It was nice to meet you.”

She gave Mallory the universal sign for "call me" and let herself out.

"She approves of your stamina," Mal told him as he wedged into a spot on the couch.

“Given her purchases I feel like her expectations on that front were low.”

"I lectured her about the ribbed ones.”

He scratched Goliath’s fur and got encouragement to continue. Goliath seemed pretty content with the current situation. “I had a really nice night.”

"So did I," Mallory said softly. "Not just the bedroom stuff. But I like being with you. I'm comfortable around you in a way I haven't felt. . . well since Malcolm was around.”

“Good,” he said, reaching for her hand and tangling their fingers. “I want to. . . make something of this.”

She smiled, looking shy. "So would I.”

They fell into a pattern after that, seeing each other every weekend. He invited her to family dinner, but she demurred, clearly nervous about it. He gave her space, but by the second month his mother was all but demanding she make an appearance.

"What if I embarrass myself?" she asked for the fifth time as they drove up to Esther's house. Alexei found himself really glad he wasn't Dimitri because the second hand nerves might make him nauseous.

“You worry about that because you’re not really understanding how weird they are.”

"Weird is different than awkward,” she protested.

The driveway was full, so he parked on the street. “Some of them are awkward, too.”

"Do two awkward cancel it out? Or does it just make it worse?" she muttered, probably to herself. She started to get out of the car, juggling the tray of deviled eggs and plant she had brought for Esther "because you bring something when you go to someone's house the first time."

He hurried around the car and took the eggs from her so she could get out without dropping something. “Two awkwards make awkward feel normal,” he told her.

She didn't look like she believed him, but she nodded and leaned into his shoulder a moment before they headed down the sidewalk towards the house. 

As they walked, Alexei concentrated until he could reach his mother’s mind. _Please contain the crowd. She’s very nervous._

_On it_ , she promised.

"Who are you talking to?" Mallory asked.

He looked at her, a little startled. “My mother. You can tell?”

"You make a face. And tilt you head slightly to the left. If you're just thinking to yourself you tilt to the right and down." She shifted her flowers and held his arm for balance as they climbed the porch steps. "If you have a long conversation your face goes through all the expressions it would if it was out loud.

He laughed. “Wow, I did not realize that. I can only imagine how that looks to my patients’ people.”

"I just assumed you were very thoughtful."

Alexei pushed open the front door, and they went into an empty foyer. You could hear the sound of conversation in other rooms, but his mother must have cleared any loiterers. His sister-in-law, Lillian, came out of one of the doorways. She was probably the most normal-person member of this crowd.

“Hi!” Lillian said, giving Alexei a hug. “Welcome, you must be Mallory.” She stuck out her hand. “Lillian Abraham, nice to meet you." 

"I am," she said, shaking her hand, then offering her the plant. "You have a lovely home.”

“Thank you. I have actually heard your name before, irrespective of that one.” She pointed her thumb at Alexei. “Angus McDonald and I go way back.”

That got an honest smile out of her. "He claims I'm his favorite research scientist.”

“He used to work at my firm.” She shifted the plant in her hands. “But mostly I wanted to come say hello first is because the rest of them are very overwhelming and I like to welcome fellow interlopers.”

Mallory nodded. "I appreciate you easing me into it. I'm not good with large groups.”

“They’re good people. There are just a lot of them.”

She reached over and held Alexei's hand. "I'm sure I'll get used to it.”

He squeezed her hand, and then they followed Lillian as she went deeper into the house. Most of the people were back in the family room, most of his family, blessedly, stayed seated for introductions.

His mother stood, of course, and took both Mallory's hands in hers. "It's very nice to meet you," she said kindly. "Alexei's told me lovely things about you. And your dog."

Mallory smiled. "He really wanted to come, but I thought it would be a little overwhelming the first time.”

“I have to agree with that,” Mom said. “It’s very brave of you to come meet us.”

"Alexei is very important to me. And I know family is very important to him.”

“Come on, come get some food,” Mom said, waving towards the kitchen.

They went to fill their plates and get a moment of quiet. Mallory offered him a small smile. "Not so bad.”

“Good.” He rubbed her back. “You haven’t looked like you want to run for the door yet.”

"I've only thought about it, but not seriously considered it." The smile widened to show she was kidding. "Besides, with my bad leg, you'd catch me easy.”

“If you needed to go, I’d go with you.”

"I know," she said quietly. "But I'm all right. I want to be here. It'll be nice to have a family again.”

Alexei smiled. “Family is something I have in spades.”

"So you're willing to share?”

“For as long as you’d like,” he told her. It was a statement that insinuated something serious, he realized, but found he didn’t mind at all.

To his relief, she nodded and stepped close to hug him. "You have any nieces with morbid interests? I'm usually popular with them.”

Thirty minutes later, sure enough, she had a rapt audience listening to her talk about dead bodies. Because that was his family. And it gave his mother time to sidle over with one of her mysterious smiles.

"She seems to be fitting in nicely," she commented.

He grinned. “She’s doing great considering how nervous she was.”

"Your poor brother could feel her from the sidewalk. He was afraid he'd have to leave if it kept up." She reached over and rubbed his back a little. "I'm glad you found her."

“I thought it would be. . . I don’t know. Harder. That I’d meet someone and have this internal debate. But all the pieces just fit.” He laced the fingers of both his hands together. He could see the look on Mom’s face, and added, “If you came over here to tell me I’m in love with her, I know.”

"I wasn't going to tell you out right. But I'm glad i can skip the hinting."

“If you can find a way to tell her you don’t care she’s not Jewish, I would appreciate that.” He paused. “Lie if you have to.”

Wanda laughed. "I'll ease it into conversation at the earliest opportunity."

“She makes me happy,” he told her.

"I can tell. I think you make her very happy, too. Worth facing the rest of us."

He watched Mallory talking for a moment. “Good.”

"She needs people," Mom said. "And we are very good at taking in strays."

“Her brother died this spring,” he said. “They were twins.”

She nodded. "That's a kind of pain it's hard to come back from."

“And yet his death is the only reason she and I met. Life is really strange like that.”

"I could make you a list of terrible things that had to happen to me for me to end up where I did. It's hard to see at the time, but good often comes from bad."

“I think I’ve made her smile a time or two lately.”

"Does she make you smile in return?”

He offered her one. “Just about every day.”

Mom leaned over and kissed his forehead. "Then I think you two will be just fine.”

*

Alexei lived above his work, so if they slept together on weeknights it was usually at his place. Mallory would pick up Goliath and come over after work. There was a roof deck on the top of the building with more space for him to run around than her little garden space, plus there was often company from a dog or two that were boarding or staying for treatment. 

It seemed natural she started letting Goliath stay there during the day, as Mallory spent less and less time at home. He apparently spent most of the day hanging out in Alexei’s office and letting the techs fuss over him.

"Are you going to get fat?" she teased him one evening, giving him a good brushing while Alexei cooked. "All the treats you're getting?”

“Come on now,” Alexei said. “All our treats are healthy.”

"Oh, well, that's okay then." Goliath nudged her shoulder, almost knocking her off balance, and she laughed. "Don't worry, Big G. I couldn't get them to stop if I tried.”

“He has many fans,” Alexei said dryly.

"It's good," she said, gathering up the discarded hair to throw away. "He's adjusting to civilian life."

"It's been really nice to have him during the day.”

"I'm glad it's working out. I like him having company, and he made a couple of my coworkers nervous.”

Alexei’s phone rang, and he fished it out of his pocket. “Hang on one sec,” he said to Mallory before answering it. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked whomever it was. She watched his face change as he listened, and then he reached over to turn off the stove. “Yeah, of course, I’m on my way.”

"What's wrong?" she asked when he'd hung up.

“Family emergency. One of my cousins—have you met Inez? She doesn’t usually come down to the city much. Her boyfriend tried to kill her. They’re bringing her down here to the medical facilities at the tower and the family is. . . gathering.” He gestured vaguely, clearly rattled.

She reached over and caught his hands. "You want me to drive?”

He took a deep breath and looked at her. “Yes. Thank you.”

"All right. I'll get my keys and purse and meet you at the door.”

His usual calm had returned by the time they got to her car, and he was quiet as they made their way through Manhattan traffic. He made a call and talked to what sounded like one of his siblings for a few, hanging up in time to direct her where to park in the underground garages beneath the tower.

She took his hand and gave it a squeeze as they walked to the elevator. "I'm right here if you need me.”

The waiting room was absolutely full of people. She’d met most of them, but it felt overwhelming in a small space. And it felt like everyone turned to look at her when they came in the door.

Not sure what else to do, she gave a little wave and followed Alexei as he went around hugging. No one at least seemed surprised or upset she was there. She supposed they were that kind of serious—she’d come along for a family emergency without a second thought.

A woman seemed to appear out of thin air in front of them, startling Mallory. Alexei hugged the woman, and then turned. “Agata Maximoff, Mallory Kennedy.”

Agata grinned. “Ah, the girlfriend. Welcome. I’m the reason he’s on the terrorist watch list.”

"Nice to meet you. I'm sure the chickens appreciated it.”

“Where’s Judith?” Alexei asked. “I saw Ben, I figured she was around somewhere.”

“She’s in with Inez.” She nudged him. “Go, Lex, I’ll look after your girl.”

He glanced back at Mallory and she smiled and gave him a nudge. "There's lots of witnesses, they'll notice if she kidnaps me.” He nodded, leaning over to kiss her temple before going.

“Technically I move fast enough they might not,” Agata commented after he was gone.

"Someone would probably notice I was gone," Mallory said easily. "Your Aunt likes me.”

“And he’s her firstborn, so that’s impressive.” Agata smiled. “Aunt Wanda’s cool. Though she did tell my husband if he broke my heart, she’d scramble his brain.”

"I have not received any direct threats. She's biding her time, or assumes I know."

"I can year you," Wanda called. "It's the second.”

“It’s a ritual,” Agata said. “No one has ever actually been murdered or lobotomized because of a messy breakup. I think there was one guy that we got put in jail for tax evasion, but he’d actually done that.” She looked towards the door, and her jaw clenched, smile gone. “And this one.” 

"This one feels justified," Mallory said. She didn't have all the details, but from what she'd picked up Inez's boyfriend and been hitting her and her father had rescued her with deadly force. "And I'm usually against the death penalty.”

“Well, the problem isn’t the death part, so much as the justice system that feeds into it.”

"And it's reluctance to change and reform," she agreed.

“My specialty, you know, for work, is hostage rescue. And liberating political prisoners, though we’re not too public about that. Kamala and I work together and there isn’t a prison in this country we couldn’t smuggle someone out of. I think about it sometimes.”

Mallory smiled. "I wish I didn't know that. We have some frustrating cases. Jokes about prison breaks are frequent.”

“Well. Lex has my number.”

"I will keep that in mind. Always wanted to be the person who could ominously say 'I know someone who knows someone.’"

“Welcome to the Avengers family.”

She had to smile at the sincerity there. “Thanks."

Judith came out not long after, and Alexei was not far behind her. “Hope you’re not getting in any trouble,” he said, putting his arm around Mallory.

"Agata implicitly threatened me and offered one free prison break," she told him. "I'm officially accepted into the fold.”

He laughed. “Good to know.”

She tucked her arm around his waist. "Is your cousin okay?”

“Okay might be a strong word, but she’s in good hands. Judith is pretty wrecked, the big visions are hard on her. I told her I’d come by tomorrow to check on her and make her breakfast.”

"You should bring Mallory," his mother said from behind him. "Judy will need meat.”

“Good idea.” He met Mallory’s eyes and raised one brow.

"I'd be happy to feed your sister," she told him. "I know many comfort foods.”

He made his goodbyes and they went back down to the car. When he sat in the passenger seat, he sighed and tipped his head back. “God that was awful,” he murmured, half to himself.

Mallory reached over and took his hand. "You okay?”

“It’s just. . .” he shook his head. “People know I am someone who is usually fine with hearing disturbing things, but sometimes. . .” he shook his head.

She shifted to rub his back. "Picked up something bad?"

“Ah, there was a little too much detail about what happens to a human body when hit by a large object going the speed of sound”

Mallory winced. "Oh. . . yeah. I can imagine." She paused. "I suppose they've already cleaned that up?”

“Judith has people that handle that kind of stuff apparently.”

She tried not to look too disappointed but he still gave her a look. "From a research perspective it would be interesting.”

Alexei tilted his head a moment, and then pulled out his phone and dialed someone. “Hey. Did Doc come in her suit? When she came to. . . yeah. FRIDAY would have scans then? . . . No, just Mallory’s professional interest. . .I don’t. . .” He chuckled a little, and put the phone down to ask, “Will my uncle ever get the blood out of his clothes or should he just burn them?”

She held out her hand and he gave her the phone. "Soak them in cold water to get the surface blood off. Then scrub any remaining stains with a paste of baking soda and water or hydrogen peroxide. Then you should be able to wash as normal. Once you wash it anything that's left is set in and ruined.”

“Thank you,” Pietro said, in his vaguely menacing accent. “I had a vibranium laced uniform the last time I did this.” He paused. “You really want to see pictures?”

"I'm a forensic scientist. I did a semester at the Body Farm conducting an experiment on putrefaction rates of bodies wrapped in different fabrics. A novel death scene is like catnip." She paused. "Normally, I wound't even ask, but Alexei has assured me numerous times that my weird is perfectly acceptable in this family.”

He chuckled in reply. “You really should meet Amanda. I think she has a head in a jar.”

Mallory paused. "Desire to hear that story might get me over the star struck.”

“You’ll fit in fine.”

When she gave the phone back to Alexei, he talked for another moment, and then hung up. “Ready to go home?” he asked her.

"Very much," she said. It had been a very long day.

“We never did eat, did we?”

She laughed a little. "You know, I don't think we did.”

They stopped to grab takeout, and ate it sitting on his couch in their pajamas. “Thank you for tonight,” he said.

"Of course," she replied, surprised he felt the need to thank her. "I've faced plenty of tragedies alone and some with company. Company is always better.”

“I love you,” he said. “I haven’t said it but I should.”

Mallory blinked a few times, feeling choked up. "I love you, too.”

He put his carton on the coffee table and held out his arms, and she put her food down so she could crawl into them. She could feel him take a deep breath and sigh it out. She nuzzled his shoulder, taking a deep breath of his scent. There was probably something they should do or say after a confession like that. But for the moment, this was just perfect.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, Nyx here. Based on Olives' comment on the previous chapter, we're looking into posting some of our original work on AO3. I created a survey to gauge interest and posted it on my tumblr, but I know some of our readers don't frequent that, so wanted to post the link here, too.
> 
> If you want to share your thoughts on seeing our original works, go here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2J9D3T7

Alexei took Mallory and Goliath along for his family’s annual trip to a house on Shelter Island that his father’s family owned. They were given a full grown-up bedroom to themselves, which was nice.

“This is a testament to how seriously my family takes us,” he told her, stretching out on the bed while she dug around in her suitcase for her bathing suit.

"That we're not sleeping in bunk beds with some of your younger siblings?”

“Competition for beds is fierce.”

"I caught a glimpse of Esther's spreadsheet. Even I was intimidated." She surfaced with a fistful of black and blue lycra. "Is the ocean nice enough to swim in this time of year?”

“August? Yes. That’s why the traffic out to the Hamptons is so bad this time of year. Best water all summer.” 

She nodded. "Closest body of water when I was growing up was Lake Superior. You were luck if it hit the 60s in August. I've heard it's better out here, but I've never been to the beach in the late summer.”

“That’s tragic and I would have remedied it if I’d known,” he said with a grin.

She spread her hands. "Good thing we're here now.”

He tucked his hands behind his head. “You need help putting that suit on?”

"I think I can manage. Though I wouldn't say no to someone to rub sunscreen on my back.”

“I will happily wait.”

She gave him a slightly shy smile, but obligingly started changing - after double checking the door was locked. Alexei just watched her, thinking about how lucky he was. 

Outside he could hear the dog barking. _Please can I eat the geese?_

He sat up. _No._

Mallory's brow arched. "Is Goliath being bad?"

“He’s getting excited by the wildlife. It’s fine.” 

"You have a distinctive 'scolding Dad' face.”

Alexei laughed. “Doesn’t surprise me. My father’s is world class. Facial expressions are tone of voice in ASL.” 

"Given the number of nieces and nephews here, I'm sure I'll see it this week." She pulled out her toiletries bag and dug out sun screen. "I was thinking, I should probably learn ASL. Especially since we seem to be adding another deaf member to the family.” Judith had finally sorted out her relationship with her roommate, much to the family’s delight, and Ben was deaf.

They were almost certainly serious enough for honesty about the family secrets. “If you want. . . my mother can actually put it in your head.”

She stopped her rummaging and looked up at him. "I'm sorry?”

“One of her powers is she can, well, install a language in someone’s head.”

"How does-" She threw up her hands. "How is Dr. Newbury not insane dealing with this for years?”

“She is a superhero. Literally.”

"Fair enough. But, yes, maybe we should talk to her about that. Your mother, I mean.”

He got up to take the sunscreen she got from her bag, leaning to give her a kiss. “Thank you.”

She kissed him back, then blinked. "What did I do right?”

“If I didn’t love you already, you hearing ‘my mother can alter someone’s brain’ and going immediately to the tragedy of Aunt Amanda’s lost research opportunities would have sealed the deal.”

"Well your mother challenges a lot of what we think we know about the brain and it's frustrating.”

Alexei made a little motion with his hand for her to turn around, and began to put the sunscreen on her back. “I told you that you could not possibly be weirder than my family.”

"I'm starting to embrace that," she said. "Your uncle still thought it was a little odd I wanted to see crime scene photos.” 

That reminded him. “Speaking of, apparently Inez wants to sell her house. Judith sent a clean-up crew, but they cleaned it up for civilian eyes. Lillian thinks you should go make sure it’s clean to CSI standards should the new owners renovate.” 

"Ooo, I'll have to order some Luminol," she said in the tone he imagined most women reserved for fancy shoes or purses.

“I will buy you all the Luminol you want.”

She turned around enough to kiss him. "Sweet talker.”

He let her distract him a moment, then insisted he finish the sunscreen—which nearly landed them back in the bed. “No, no,” he murmured. “No nooners in a house with my family.”

She pouted adorably, but allowed him to disentangle. "Is this a 100% celibate vacation? Because I feel like you should have disclosed that.”

Alexei chuckled. “It is not. If you were shameless, impervious, or oblivious, I’d say who cares. But since you notice, you know, _everything_ , I thought I’d spare you my brothers’ faces. Some of them are psychic.”

"Ah." She pecked his cheek and stretched to snag a beach cover from her suitcase. "I'll restrain myself.”

“Later I can tell you the embarrassing story of the day I lost my virginity.”

"I can't believe I haven't heard it yet.”

“I have many mortifying family stories to tell you. Though something of them are probably for after-” He caught the words of the rest of that sentence before they came out of his mouth. _After the wedding._ Instead he cleared his throat and gestured vaguely.

She looked at him oddly. Mallory was anything but dumb, and she almost certainly heard the unspoken words. And would continue to, the more the idea nagged at him.

Clearing her throat, she put an adorably oversized hat. "Shall we head to the beach?”

He held out his hand to her. “Lead the way.” She took his hand and wove their fingers together as they headed out of the room.

Alexei didn’t get to slow down much, and so it was really nice to spend time swimming, boating, and hanging on the beach or the house’s porch. He ran around on the lawn with his nieces and nephews and two very spoiled dogs. They BBQed and played board games. His mother and Rose did an entire puzzle without touching the pieces. Mallory proved a photographic memory could hold it’s own in a card game against a psychic.

He and Judith ended up out on the porch one night, because the dogs were outside for their last potty and zoomies break and needed watching. “You look happy,” he commented.

"I am," she said. "Ben and I have had a couple good conversations. We feel kind of dumb for not admitting what was going on between us sooner. But now that it's sorted. . . it's like we skipped all the awkward early dating stuff and slipped right into long-term relationship.”

“We all do things in our own time.”

"Very Mom of you to say." She looked over at him. "What's your time line looking like?”

He could feel himself smile. “Like I need to buy a ring.”

She grinned at him. "Like that, is it?”

“It absolutely is. If I don’t get the damn thing soon, the words are going to just fall out of my mouth.”

Judith laughed. "I can absolutely see you doing that." She reached over and rubbed his shoulder. "Congratulations. She's good people. Fits in with us just fine.”

“She’s like the piece I didn’t know was missing.”

"You should use that when you propose.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

"I'm very happy for you, Lex. And grateful that you're the only sibling not say 'I told you so.’"

“Eh, they’re all assholes.”

"I appreciate you can write off the whole family, that's ballsy.”

Alexei laughed. “I could go back to Mom Yoda Wisdom if you want.”

"No thank you," she said, waving the words away. "I have enough of that from her.”

“I am happy you are happy.”

The screen door behind them open, and Mallory came out onto the porch. “Hey, I was going to head to bed.”

Alexei tipped his head back so she could kiss him, and said, “I’ll be up a few.”

She gave Judith a little wave before heading back in.

Judith waved back and waited for the door to swing shut before looking back at Alexei. "You're gonna have powered babies.”

He grinned. “Is that a vision or a guess?”

"Vision," she said. "Also, let me be the first to point out that twins run in both your families.”

That delighted and terrified him at the same time. “I had no idea you could see things that far out.” 

"It's getting a little stronger the last couple months." She tapped the side of her head. "I feel like the thing with Inez knocked something loose.”

“You okay seeing that kind of thing?” Knowing people’s life events had to be quite a burden to bear.

"Don't know that I get a vote," she admitted. "But I'm ok with it. I can be useful. I saved Inez's life. Makes the headache worth it.”

“I hope you will enjoy my children as well. I intend for you to be their favorite auntie.”

"I will try to rise to the challenge.”

Alexei rounded up Goliath and went upstairs. Mallory had just gotten into bed, and snuggled up to him. “Hey,” he said, leaning over to kiss the top of her head.

"Hi," she mumbled. "How's your sister doing?”

“Good. Happy. Life is better with a partner.”

She cuddled closer. "I have to agree.”

“Do you want kids someday?” he asked.

"Oh yes," she said. "I'd love a big family.”

He closed his eyes, feeling content. “Sounds like fun.”

"We can beat Esther and Lillian.”

“We could have twins,” he said.

"Mmm, we could. Mal and I were natural and one of my grandma's was a twin.”

“I love you,” he whispered. “I look forward to the future.”

She yawned and gave him a little squeeze. "Me too.”

*

After they got back home, Alexei was very busy with work, so Mallory convinced Nova to come with her to pick up her luminol. “What exactly is this for again?”

"His cousin is moving and I'm going to make sure there's nothing weird that would show up in a home inspection.”

“Seems a little paranoid if you ask me. Is the cousin a serial killer?”

"No," Mallory said, wishing she'd thought of some other excuse. "From what I've heard her ex was pretty abusive, though so. . ." She shrugged. "I didn't ask questions.”

“If there’s a body under the floorboards we’ll probably need some stronger chemicals.”

Mallory considered. "We could certainly obscure the corpse's identity, but it's actually very hard to completely dispose of a body with chemicals.”

“That’s disappointing.”

"Now you sound like a serial killer.”

“Okay. I don’t want to talk about dead bodies. Tell me about your beach vacation.”

"Oh! It was a lot of fun. His family is super sweet and funny. One of his sisters finally admitted she's in love with her roommate, so there was a lot of teasing.”

“Was it. . . I mean, how much privacy did you have?"

"We had our own room," Mallory told her primly. "He was grateful I'd saved him from the singles room.”

“Is is his mother planning the wedding? Mine would be.”

"If she is, she's restrained herself from saying anything to me. I think it helps that he has a couple married siblings already.”

“I keep waiting for you to tell me you’re moving in with him.”

They really should talk about that. She spend a _lot_ of time at his place. "I keep meaning to bring it up, but I forget," she admitted. "Part of me thinks it will just happen accidentally.”

Nova was shaking her head. “Don’t do it.”

She arched a brow. "Don't move in with him?”

“I think he’s fantastic, but don’t move in with a man without a ring.” 

Mallory reached over and pressed her hand to Nova's head. "Have you been taking over by the spirit of your mother?”

Nova held up a finger. “My mother would do that whole milk/cow thing. That’s not what I’m talking about." 

"What are you talking about then?”

“Once you move in with someone, it becomes much harder to end the relationship if things get mediocre. You can end up staying together because of inertia. Or worse, if it goes badly, you could end up having to live on my couch. Don’t build a life with someone until you know you want to build a life with them, yeah?” She did that little head bobble thing. “I love the guy and can’t wait to be a bridesmaid. But keep your lease until the state of New York has given you legal rights to half of his place.”

It was a very cynical bit of advice, especially for Nova, who tended to be a bit of a romantic. "I'm pretty sure I do want to spend my life with him. But I promise not to jump into anything serious spontaneously.”

“Or accidentally.”

"Or accidentally," she repeated.

Once they got all her supplies loaded into the car, Nova asked, “So how much of your stuff do you have at his place?”

"Some toiletries, pajamas, a change of clothes or two and my spare kindle.”

“I suppose anyone with that many sisters is immune to being weird about tampons under his sink.”

"He went out and bought a box himself, I didn't even have to bring them.”

Nova stopped and stared at her. “Maybe you should propose.”

Mallory grinned. "I think I'll give him a little bit longer. But it's not a bad idea.”

That weekend, they drove upstate so she could inspect his cousins house—which contained a dining room that lit up like it had once belonged to Hannibal Lector.

"Yikes," she said. "I know some enzymes that will break the blood down better. Though I admit, most of this wouldn't show up on a normal inspection.”

Alexei put his hands on his hips. “How about replacing the flooring? They really want to be sure this is clear.”

"The subfloor should still be treated with the enzymes, but it would simplify the process.”

He nodded, pulling out his phone and typing on it. “I’ll tell Judith.”

Mallory started packing her stuff up. "I'll send her some links to buy the enzyme cleaner once we get back home.”

“I really appreciate this,” he said. “Though it was fun watching you work.”

She grinned looking up at him. "Got a thing for UV lights huh?”

“Want to get some lunch?”

"Yes, please. I'm starving.”

He reached out and took her hand, tucking it in the crook of his elbow. “I will take you to Ithaca’s weirdest buffet.”

"You've intrigued me," she said. "I love weird.”

The buffet had chinese food, southern fried chicken, and a taco bar. Everything she sampled, however, was in fact delicious.

"I can't believe I've lived this long without trying a sweet and sour chicken taco," she commented on the way home. "It's like I've emerged from Plato's cave.”

“I adore you,” he told her.

She reached over and squeezed his hand. "Was it the Plato's cave reference?”

“I appreciate all your many kinds of nerd.”

"That bodes well for our continuing relationship.”

They stopped at Judith’s to pick up Goliath and talk to her about Inez’s house. They had dinner with her and Ben, and then Mallory and Alexei drove back into the city. They went to his place without much conversation.

She couldn't help but think about her conversation with Nova as she got ready for bed. They were clearly on the path to moving in together. To the point she was probably overdue in bringing it up. But it had been such a nice day, she sort of just wanted to curl up in bed with him and sleep. 

“Yoda is trying to talk Goliath into giving him his bed,” Alexei commented as he came into the bathroom, crossing behind her where she was at the sink brushing her teeth. He opened the glass door and turned on the shower. 

"Is he falling for it?" she asked around her toothbrush.

“Nope. Wish I could record them, though. It’s pretty funny.” He shoved his hair into a bun on the top of his head no other man she’d ever met would be able to pull off. In the mirror she openly watched him strip and step under the spray.

She finished brushing, spitting out the foam and rinsing her mouth out. "I'm glad they get along," she called over the sound of the water. "In a combative sibling way.”

“Life would be unpleasant if they did not.”

"Very much." She took her glasses off to wash her face. "You ever think about getting other pets?”

“Given what I do for a living that feels sort of inevitable.” The water went off and then she got to watch him dry himself off.

"I like having Goliath. And he's cute when he plays with your sister's dog. I was thinking we could ask him if he'd like a full time friend.”

He wrapped a towel around his waist and came over to kiss her. “Sounds like fun."

She curled an arm around him and leaned on his shoulder a moment. “Bedtime?"

He tugged her towards the door. “Mmmm, you read my mind.”

Mallory laughed a little, letting him pull her along.

The next morning was Sunday and she woke up before him to start coffee and walk Goliath. They headed down the block to her favorite bakery and grabbed some croissants and danishes to take home for breakfast. 

He was awake when she got back, standing in the kitchen shirtless, staring at the coffee maker like he could glare it into brewing faster.

Mallory unhooked Goliath's lead to let him wander off and brought her bakery boxes over to the table. She looked over at Alexei a moment and said, "You wanna get married?”

He turned his gaze from the coffee very slowly. He stared for a moment with his mouth open, looking startled, then consternated, then amused in turn. He put his hands on his hips, chuckled a little and shook his head. Then he held up one finger to her, turned and walked into the bedroom.

That was. . . not one of her expected answers. She looked over at Yoda, who was imperiously hovering on top of the fridge. "Should I be concerned?”

Yoda meowed, but she of course had no idea what it meant.

Alexei came back out and set a small box on the counter in front of her. It was of a very recognizable shape, in a very recognizable robin’s egg blue.

"Oh," she said. "Did I ruin some elaborate plans?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, and he sounded like he meant it. “As long as you promise to explain it to Nova.”

"Don't worry. This was totally her fault. She was giving me dire warnings about not moving in together until we got married. So I figured I'd get on with it.”

“I called her to ask for her blessing and also your ring size, and she insisted on coming shopping. She was very disappointed I didn’t ‘know a guy’ in the Diamond District. I replied she should call the cousin who is a cab driver that I’d just assume she had and he could take us down to 47th street. Then we spent 3 hours in Tiffany together.”

Mallory laughed. "I'm glad you two are getting along." The anticipation was getting to be too much, so she reached out and flipped open the lid of the box. It was a surprisingly reasonable-sized and diamond, considering Nova was involved. It was elegant without being flashy and probably explained a lot about why shopping took 3 hours. 

"Oh," she said softly. "That's lovely." She looked over at Alexei. "Do you want to put it on me?”

He grinned at her. “Would you accept that as a ‘yes’ to your proposal?”

"I would. A mutual yes, to a very romantic proposal.”

“You know, not long before we met, I was having lunch with Judith and she asked me if I was going to settle down, and I said I would just as soon as I found someone weird enough to fit in with my family. And then there you were. I love you so much. I hope our kids are weird enough they’ll laugh when I tell them I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you while you were on the phone with my Uncle talking about decomposing dead bodies.”

She smiled, throat tight, and reached out to pull him towards her and kiss him. "I love you. I will happily talk about decomposing bodies with your relatives for the rest of our lives."


	8. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We wrote this little epilogue about their wedding and I realized yesterday that we never posted it, so here it is! Happy Valentine's Day, all.

Mallory was aware she was marrying into a very large extended family, but was still startled by the sheer size of the guest list, not to mention the not-insignificant number of famous people.

She’d managed to rustle up some relatives, and all of her friends. There was even an entire table of random members of Nova’s family, because Indians thought nothing odd about being invited to their cousin’s friend's wedding. They were still dwarfed. On the day of the ceremony itself, it felt particularly acute. She missed her mother. Her father. Her brother.

“I love the women in the red outfits. That’s style. The Wakandans know how to do it.” They were in the resort’s bridal suite getting ready. Nova was keeping up a string of chatter while Mallory was getting her hair done. “All the other bodyguards look like different flavors of central casting goons.”

"My wedding has a selection of bodyguards," Mallory said. "This is not something I included in my girlhood fantasies.”

“Welcome to the circus, as my Uncle Tony likes to say,” Judith commented. “There’s way weirder stuff downstairs than bodyguards.”

“Don’t freak her out,” Alexei’s mother said, exaggerating her accent like she did when she was making a joke. “I’m an hour away from one of my sons finally having a wife.” She’d come up for a turn with the make-up artist, who was another one of Alexei’s Avenger-family cousins. 

"I'm aware of the Norse gods and personification of a black hole," Mallory told her. "Alexei tried to warn me.”

“I want to meet the black hole so bad,” Nova said. 

“All done,” the hairdresser said.

“Mallory,” Wanda said, tilting her head in an exact replica of the way her son did it when talking to someone telepathically. “Alexei wants me to tell you that his gift is running late but it is here, he’ll have it brought when we go down for the veil.”

The first Jewish wedding Mallory had ever been to was her own. She didn’t have a religion, his traditions meant a lot to him, and his parents paid for the wedding anyway. Dimitri, who was doing the ceremony, had explained it all in great detail, and there were some particularly lovely things. There was a small ceremony before the big one with only the most intimate friends and family where she and Alexei got to see each other and he put her veil on for her. 

"All right, thank you." She had no idea what this gift of his was. He was being extremely closed lipped about it. Even Nova hadn't been able to wheedle it out of him.

"My bets are still on tiara," Nova said.

"And I repeat, he isn't that close to the royal cousins." And dear God was it weird there was more that one of those.

“The time for a tiara is before hair,” Nazzie, the makeup artist said. “It was a thing at Ruby’s wedding.”

There was the most perfunctory of knocks, and Nova’s mother came busting in. She had on a heavily embroidered gold sari that Mallory was pretty sure cost more than her own dress, and enough jewelry to outshine an Asgardian helmet. Shrini was Nova’s Sparkly Lady turned up to eleven. Since Mallory’s parents were gone, Nova’s parents were walking her down the aisle. “That wedding planner. Is a shrew.” 

"What did she do?" Nova asked, with just a hint of exasperation.

“She’s so fussy. She told me to come see if everyone was dressed. I said you’ll be dressed when you're dressed. What are they going to do, start without you?”

"We have a cousin that happened to," Nazzie said brightly. They had a cousin everything happened to.

It was good timing to get into her dress anyway. The florist came with their flowers, the bridesmaids finished getting ready, the photographer fluttered about. Wanda went downstairs in search of her family. Esther came up with her six- and eight-year-old daughters, in their adorable flower girl dresses. The wedding coordinator came to tell them in was time to come downstairs.

Mallory blew out a breath and gave herself one more look in the mirror. Nova came over and hugged her from behind. "Ready?"

She nodded and straightened her shoulders. "Ready."

"You look divine." Nova kissed her cheek. "You'll knock his socks off.”

The bridal entourage went downstairs, and were shown to a fancy room that had some victorian-looking arm chairs in them. The photographer took pictures of the bridal party, until the door opened and Goliath came bounding in. Someone had put an adorable little bowtie on him. Behind him was one of Alexei’s more famous cousins, Joe Rogers, who’d been elected to the Senate last year and was probably one of the people responsible for the bodyguards Nova was going on about. Behind him was a man in a Marine dress uniform. Major Fischer, who’d brought Goliath home to her.

"Major," Mallory said, surprised. "I didn't expect you to come." She had sent invitations to a handful of Malcom's old squamates, out of respect. Only one was discharged and local and had RSVP'd yes.

“Senator Rogers asked me,” he said, inclining his head in Joe’s direction.

“Alexei called me,” Joe said. “To see if I could help track down your brother’s missing dog tag.” One had been buried with him. The other the military had, and she’d been hoping to get it back so she could carry it today. “Unfortunately we couldn’t find it.”

"Oh." Disappointment was sharp, but at this point she hadn't had much hope. "Well, I appreciate you both trying.”

“I did, however, find something else in the works while running this down,” Joe said. “And did some string pulling and skid greasing on both timelines and cooperation with the non-standard circumstances.” He looked at Major Fischer, who called something out into the hallway. A row of Marines in dress blues filed in. Faces she recognized from pictures Malcom had sent her. Men who, as far as she knew, were deployed. Goliath began turning in excited circles.

Joe came forward with a leather box. “On behalf of the President of the United States, I present to you the Silver Star, posthumously awarded to Master Sergeant Malcom Kennedy of the United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous bravery in combat.”

Mallory covered her mouth with a hand as Joe popped the box open to show her. Her eyes burned but she tried her best to not let the tears spill out. "Thank you," she managed to say, then looked past Joe to the Major and the others. "Thank you all.”

“Sarge would have wanted us to come,” one of them said.

“My wife tells me getting his guys here probably matter more than the medal,” Joe murmured. “But, you know, Lex really wanted you to get something shiny in a box.”

"They're all appreciated," she assured him. "Can I put it in my bouquet? That's what I wanted to do with the dog tag. I don't know if there's rules about the medals.”

He nodded, and then helped her take it out and pin it to the ribbon wrapping around the flowers. Behind her, she heard Shrini say, “The Shrew argued with me when I said have extra tables, but look, people don’t RSVP and show up or they decide plus 1 really means plus 15.”

"Yes, Mum, you're very smart," Nova said. “Shush."

Mallory hugged Joe, and then Major Fischer, and then most of the rest of the Marines, eventually giving up on her attempts not to cry. Thankfully her makeup was waterproof because she had just a moment to compose herself as they all filed out, and then Alexei’s parents and siblings brought him in to her.

That man was just unreasonably attractive in a tuxedo. He stopped two feet inside the doorway and put his hand over his heart, just staring at her.

She was pretty sure her smile was pretty watery when she finally managed one. "Hi," she said softly.

Alexei came closer. “You look so beautiful.”

"Thank you." She held up her bouquet. "I got my brother's medal.”

He grinned. “I swear, I just asked for the dog tag.”

"Nothing is ever simple in your family, you told me that.”

He cupped her face in one of his hands and stroked his thumb over her cheekbone. “Good gift?”

"Very good. Thank you so much.”

Touching his forehead to hers, he asked, “Ready to get married?”

"Yes. You?”

“More than anything in my entire life.”

They took a few pictures, and then he carefully flipped the blusher of her veil over her face. His parents walked him up the aisle, and Nova’s parents walked Mallory. They got married under an enormous flower-covered canopy and his brother sounded like he’d just won the lottery during the entire ceremony. She supposed that was what you got when an empath absorbed the room emotions at a wedding. There was wine and rings and the signing of a marriage contract.

_I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine._

Alexei stomped his foot on a glass wrapped in cloth. The crowd roared and called out congratulations in what had to be a mix of four or five languages. Dimitri was actually giggling. Her new husband kissed her and she didn’t hear any of it. 

After the recessional, they were shoed back into the room with the chairs. There was a platter of food one of the little tables. This was another one of those standard Jewish wedding rituals that she thought was a fantastic idea—they were to have 15 minutes absolutely alone. So much so, apparently, that when Alexei closed the door, he locked it.

"Hello husband," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck when he joined her by the chairs. "Did I tell you how handsome you look?”

He grinned. “No, but better late than never.”

She kissed him tenderly, memorizing every moment. "That was a beautiful wedding. Your brother sounded high.”

“Enough joy does that to him.” He laughed a little. “I didn’t think it would feel this heavy. In a good way, I mean. But I didn’t expect to feel different.”

"I know what you mean. Nothing has really changed. But it feels different.”

His stomach growled, making her laugh, and he reached over to get an appetizer. “I think as intimate and real as private commitments are, there is something about making a public promise in front of God and everyone you know.” 

She was also starving so she nudged him to sit so she could take the other chair and pop a couple snacks in her mouth. "And even some people we don't know. There are definitely relatives of Nova's out there I've never met.”

Alexei sighed deeply. “I am really, really happy right now.”

"So am I." She scooted over to lean her head on his shoulder. "You sure we have to go to the reception?”

“Yeah, I think they’d notice.” He rested his cheek on the top of her head. “We should get used to chaos, Judith told me we were going to have twins.”

That probably should have surprised her, but it seemed logical. "Given our family history, that tracks. I always wanted a big family.”

“Even after you’ve seen what a pain in the ass mine is?”

"Especially after that. I want our kids to have a small city at their weddings and a long list of people to help when they need it.”

“They will definitely have that. And a last name people can neither spell nor pronounce.”

"The challenge will make them strong."


End file.
